Announcer: I am pleased to announce that there is no trace of the HIV virus in either Kyle Broflovski or Eric Cartman. Together these boys beat their illness. With nothing but each other, and overcoming all odds, these two brave friends... Kyle: Oh stop! We're not friends! HE'S the one who infected me with AIDS! (beat)Announcer: These two brave lovers found the cure and helped the world!

— South Parknote Just to clarify; Cartman was mistakenly given HIV+ blood in a tonsil operation, and Cartman used a syringe to infect Kyle as revenge for poking fun at him for getting what he deserved for his jerkassery.

A comedy plot line in which a character wrongly believes another character to be gay, either because of misinformation received or because of the supposedly gay character's own misinterpreted words and actions. Once the character is taken to be a homosexual, all his words and actions become laden with innuendo and further misunderstandings, and humor ensues.

This can often be caused with supernatural secrets, such as superpowers or lycanthropy, which aren't immediately obvious, or various other embarrassing secrets.

Almost inevitable for Heterosexual Life-Partners. This plot may be the first time we've heard them explicitly say they're not gay (whether we believe them or not is another matter).

A slight subversion occurs when a character is suspected of being gay and takes this as a compliment, since that person deeply sympathizes with gay people.

For such characters to qualify, they have to be mistakenly assumed to be homosexual, even if the G, H, and L words are not used. However, these characters don't need to retaliate or tell those who have mistaken them that they aren't gay as such characters can easily disprove these mistake through other means such as a revelation of a straight relationship.

See also Mistaken for Index. When the character probably is gay but is in denial, they're in the Transparent Closet. When the Character is heterosexual but acts like the Camp Gay stereotype they're Camp Straight. Due to the common belief that All Men Are Perverts and A Man Is Always Eager, any male character who isn't shown to jump at the chance to have sex with a woman will be mistaken for gay (if not actually gay) by the audience and possibly by the other characters as well (especially male characters). This trope, when used is considered a use of Ho Yay due to the fact that it is a trope concerning homosexual themes.

Examples:

Many characters have been mistaken for gay, including the infamous episode where Renji and Ichigo end up in an awkward position on the floor with Ichigo yelling "Take it off already!".

This happens to Renji again later in the series during his fight with Szayel Aporro, who is quick to turn him down saying either "I don't lean that way" or "You're not my type" depending on the translation. The humor here is Szayel Aporro, an effeminate pink haired man, being alarmed about being hit on by another man.

Also happens to Ikkaku, depending on translation. When stationed in the human world, he was living with Keigo and his sister who laid out incredibly cute clothing for him to wear. When Matsumoto spots his clothing, she asks him if he's switched teams. Ikkaku is not amused.

Tomoya starts telling people that Kyou knocked him over while riding her scooter ("bike") to school, but Kyou, knowing it's against the rules, keeps cutting him off at the first syllable of (the English word) "bike." When people start asking what he was about to say, his answer is...another English loanword that starts with "bi." Considering Kyou's later glomping of Kotomi, though...

Ryou mistakes Nagisa's asking for help with the theatre club to be a confession of love. She even accepts before realizing it's not.

Tomoya made Nagisa think Sunohara is gay. She pretends Tomoya is her boyfriend to drive Sunohara away.

A big part of the Comedy Tennis developed by Yuuji Hitouji and Koharu Konjiki relays on them being very touchy-feely with each other and Koharu openly fanboying his rivals and teammates and even groping them at some point. All of this is done to disrupt the rivals' concentration and makes the duo's style of play harder to predict... though some wonder if Yuuji actually takes it a bit too seriously, what with him openly saying Koharu is cheating on him when he mock-flirts with others.

In an episode, Makoto becomes very interested in Haruka (an extremely boyish girl) and the other characters speculate about her preferences. It turns out that she merely looks up to Haruka as a role model, although fans have debated about what this assertion actually means. This may be one of The Artifacts from the original manga, where Haruka isn't an exclusively 'butch'-looking crossdresser; Makoto outright explains she admires Haruka's confidence in embracing her boyish tendencies, something Makoto hasn't been able to.

Note Rei is technically mistaken for gay, if only because most later adaptations drop the more convoluted version of her Does Not Like Men status and will make at least one joke about it.

In Marmalade Boy, when perpetual loner Yuu suddenly starts hanging out with exceedingly popular school president Satoshi Miwa, their female classmates and the school newscasters immediately conclude they're getting it on. Hilariously enough, Yuu himself thinks Satoshi is gay for him when he suddenly starts trying to hang around him for no discernible reason. The real reason is because Satoshi believed Yuu was his half-brother, as his father was something of a philanderer and he was interested in Yuu's mother, Chiyako. Yuu reached the same conclusion independently, and was shocked when he learned Satoshi's surname. Of course, we don't find that out before hilarity ensued, including Miki overhearing them having a conversation that sounded like Satoshi pressuring Yuu to have sex with him out of context.

Blood Alone: A rare example that doubles as Mistaken For Straight. In one chapter, Misaki gets to meet Kaoru Souma, a famous Idol Singer she admires. It turns out that Kaoru is a lesbian, and she ends up developing a crush on Misaki. However, Misaki misreads the situation and thinks that Kaoru is crushing on her mentor, Kuroe, and begins asking her questions to see if it's true. So poor Kaoru thinks that Misaki is flirting with her, while Misaki thinks Kaoru is trying to get with Kuroe.

Episode nine of Kannagi revolves entirely around this. After an incident in episode eight involving Daitetsu staying at Jin's house and what happened to part of Nagi's sacred tree, everyone is thinking Daitetsu is gay for Jin and Nagi's furious about it. Zange and Tsugumi attempt to orchestrate a situation that would make Jin out to be a playboy to clear up the rumors, but it's to no avail. People start taking him as the Anything That Moves type, which is probably worse.

In the first episode, when Haruhi first enters the music room hoping to find a place to study she encounters the host club who believe she's a guy thanks to her messy hair, unflattering outfit, and glasses. Tamaki also believes she's gay, until he finds out her real gender at the end of the episode.

In a variation of this, Haruhi's father Ryoji, who is actually bisexual, gave by Haruhi's mother Kotoko the impression that he was gay when they first met because he would often talk about guys he found attractive. She didn't realize that his inviting her to dinner all the time was an attempt to pursue a relationship with her.

In the last chapter of the manga Tamaki and Haruhi are mistaken for gay when they're having a close moment and dancing together (with her in a dress, even). It isn't until later that the girls figure out Haruhi is really a girl—they originally just thought she was a boy who liked to crossdress as a girl.

In the first episode of Gun Frontier, Harlock and Tochiro encounter a sheriff who notes their close camaraderie, gives them an odd look, and the line "It's a free country. Guess that applies to love too." Neither man is amused.

˝ Prince (pay attention, this gets complicated). The female main character is the only female who plays as a male in a hugely popular online game. The gay guy in her party, who's her university lecturer IRL, is infatuated with her Bishōnen character, but doesn't know he's a she. Her male childhood friend does, and then angrily confesses his long-hidden love for her to the gay guy, saying that he's known her for 8 years. She overhears this, but because Chinese uses gender-neutral pronouns, both she and the uni lecturer think he's talking about a boy. Later on as she's racking her brains for the identity of the mystery crush, her twin brother walks in. Both he and the childhood friend are teammates in the game who both play bishonen. Cue the wrong penny dropping. The brother, however, knows that the childhood friend is in love with the sister, and wants to support their relationship. When his sister asks, "Do... you... like... him?" he replies [thinking she wanted his approval before she starts a relationship with the friend] "Of course! Dad and Mom have even given their approval!". The rest of the inadvertent Ho Yay just falls into place, and Gui has stated that he would like Prince no matter the gender or age. He's not homosexual, he's Prince-sexual. For bonus points, the reason Gui even started teasing/flirting with Prince in the first place is because he saw a male in-game drooling over him and, not knowing that the character was controlled by a female played, decided to have some fun messing with what he assumed was a gay guy.

In an early chapter of Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, poor Tsuna gets mistaken at school for "becoming Gokudera's bitch," after Gokudera became his Stalker with a Crush came to worship and admire him as the Tenth boss. Now whether Gokudera was mistaken for gay is another debatable story... Well, he has his own girl fanbase at school, but isn't really pleased with them (he finds them just that annoying). But his devotion to the juu-dai-me does tend to fall into this.

Happens a few times to Memori and Yuuki in Game×Rush, which makes sense because... Well, just flip through Volume 2 sometime.

When Hayate the Combat Butler's title character is questioned about 'why' he rejects Nishizawa's confession, the fact that he possibly likes guys is brought up before he mentions his childhood teaching from Athena. He's just that clueless, girls.

In Chapter 15, Ataru is invited to the undersea kingdom of the kappa after he saves a member of their race. The kappa women perform a dance number in his honor, but he's visibly disgusted by their freaky, inhuman appearance. The kappa princess notices this and assumes that he's repulsed because he's gay, so she tries to cheer him up by sending a group of kappa men to entertain him. It goes about as well as you'd expect.

When Kurama's father is mentoring Ataru, he tells the boy (in reference to combat) to come at him if he ever spots an opening. Ataru misunderstands, and responds by saying "I'm sorry, but you're not my type."

During Parents' Day, Mendou's mother tosses a glove at Lum's mother in order to challenge her to a duel. Since Lum's mother cannot speak Japanese and has no knowledge of Earth customs, she assumes that Mrs. Mendou is asking for her hand in marriage.

At the end of the third Shippuuden movie Kakashi is mistaken as being hitting on Naruto, who just freaks out at the implication. The other rookies are quick to begin the teasing.

When Naruto is going through some Training from Hell and Kakashi means to compliment Naruto on how much he is improving, he says, "I think I'm starting to really like you". Naruto takes this the wrong way.

Kotetsu and Izumo are mistaken for gay by Tsunade in one omake.

Sai in one filler arc tries to comfort Naruto but looks like he's trying to kiss him - Naruto freaks out and shoves him away.

Happens about once in every two episodes for Angel Beats!: Hinata will say something (such as "I quite like you" or "I need you!") that makes him sound like he has a crush on Otonashi. Cue Otonashi asking "Are you..." with a troubled look and an Aside Glance, and Hinata hurriedly cutting him off. "It's not like that!". It's pretty much a Running Gag by now. The hand gesture that Otonashi does when he asks this actually means/indicates "gay" — sort of the Japanese equivalent of doing the limp-wrist thing.

Often the case with Tooru and Yuujirou from Princess Princess with Tooru saying "there's nothing between me and Yuujirou!" and Yuujirou... not exactly denying it. Granted, he had the idea to help drive Tooru's Yandere stepsister away, but...

Pokémon: Happens to James in the episode where he decides to dress up as "The Flaming Moltres". It happens in the form of a joke from Jessie when she and Meowth get embarrassed after James starts acting flamboyantly in his Moltres outfit. When Meowth asks where James got the outfit, Jessie responds "I think that costume came right out of his closet" which is basically a coming out of the closet joke.

Full Metal Panic!: In the novel's side story, Tsubaki accidentally confesses to Sousuke instead of Kaname (due to his glasses being off), while he was trying to reveal to Mizuki that he won't reciprocate her feelings because of this person he loves. Sousuke is shown to become very disgusted and nervous after receiving this confession, and afterwards, the entire school thinks he has a gay crush on Sousuke.

There is also the episode where Yuri and Gwendal are mistaken as an eloping couple (they were chained together)

Rosario+Vampire: Other characters mistake Fang-Fang Huang's obsessive attempts to get Tsukune to join his mafia family as him being gay for Tsukune. It doesn't help that he's rather androgynous and his initial recruitment speech includes such lines as "job for life by my side", "become part of my family", and "passionate bonds between men".

Tsukune: I think I'm in the wrong manga...

Please Twins!: Because Maiku hasn't been ogling them, Karen and Miina worry he is gay. So they crank up the Fanservice level to try and get a reaction out of him.

Cardcaptor Sakura: Syaoran thought he had a crush on Yukito, but it later turned out he was just attracted to the high amount of moon energy inside him.

You could interpret him as bi, though. And just to nitpick: the reason why he can't be gay is that he falls in love with Sakura, not that he wasn't really in love with Yukito (since he could have turned out to be gay anyway).

Amatsuki: In the manga Heihachi comes to the conclusion that Toki is hitting on him, and sadly recommends that Toki should be with Kon instead, as Kon is more good-looking.

Violinist of Hameln: The other characters flat out accuse Hamel and Raiel of being gay a few times.

In a chapter of BECK, Sayaka's friends egg her to make a pass on Koyuki without even knowing about his relationship with Maho. When Sayaka finally musters her courage to at least hold his hand, he starts remembering Maho and runs off, apologizing. Then, her (Sayaka's) friends start thinking he's gay (and, to make things worse - in a sense - Sayaka never appears again in the manga from that point on).

In one early chapter of the manga, Love Goddess Peorth mistakenly believes Keiichi (who she's trying to woo, a little too well) and Tamiya are lovers, due to her steady diet of Shoujo manga. She responds by trying to woo Tamiya, and things get interesting when Tamiya actually becomes infatuated with Peorth.

In the anime, Harmless Villain Mara gets not just mistaken for gay, but Mistaken For Gay Rapist, not once but twice (by Sayoko and Megumi).

In chapter 23 of Omamori Himari, Himari switches back to human form right on top of Rinko. Rinko's mother walks in a moment later to find a nude Himari straddling Rinko on top of her bed. Beat.

Mother:J-J-Just now, I witnessed my cute little girl's hidden passion!! This is the final drop for a mother!!!Rinko: M-Mom!! Don't break down on me now!! [...] Himari: I'll only ask this once: has anything unusual happened? Rinko: Yeah, because of you my relationship with my family has just become unusual...

Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Hitomi assumes that the reason Madoka and Sayaka don't hang out with her after school any more is because they've undergone a Relationship Upgrade, when in reality they've been tagging along with a Magical Girl. Though it doesn't help their case that Sayaka was acting quite flirtatious. She also might have (even subconsciously) wanted to believe that the two were a gay couple, since she was chasing the same boy Sayaka did. It also doesn't help that Madoka has a Cast Full ofAmbiguously Gay / Bi schoolgirls, of which Hitomi is the only ostensibly straight member. And Sayaka was coming on pretty strong. Lampshaded by Dub!Sayaka: "[while Hitomi freaks out] I can't believe she's going there..."

(fandom aside) Saiyuki has a few. Genjo Sanzo gets it quite a lot from random strangers to the extent he's nicknamed Mr. Gay by someone in a bar in the first OVA, and was even hit on once by a drunk Depraved Bisexual in another bar. He's not particularly happy about this fact, considering that he was bullied as a child partly because it was rumored he was his adopted father/mentor's catamite. The other characters naturally find it hilarious, though. Ironically, in Gaiden, his previous incarnation was rumored to be in the same situation with Goku's younger self. Tenpou and Kenren in Gaiden also have rumours flying about all over the place which is Truth in Television for two people who are close friends. Mentioning it is likely to get you beaten into the ground though. Also played completely straight when Gojyo and Goku are fighting on a bed and a girl walks into the hotel room, jumps to the wrong conclusion and quickly hurries out.

In Girl Got Game, Chiharu being Sweet on Polly Oliver leads to Hayama making this assumption . . . and being a very ardent shipper, going so far as to offer Chiharu a gay sex guide and wishing him happiness. (Chiharu does not appreciate it.)

In The World God Only Knows, post-capture Yui publicly confesses to Keima, while wearing a boy's uniform. It also didn't help that she was acting like the Seme while Keima uncharacteristically acted like the Uke. Later on, she intended to fix this trope by trying to get Keima to wear a dress. And succeeded.

Ranma and Akane have had a lot of romantic moments when he's in his girl form. At times, this makes Akane worry that people will think they're lesbians. Mariko thought they were lesbians. Still does.

In the manga, Ranma unknowingly eats some pork buns that make him hug anyone who sneezes. Kuno challenges him to a fight and Ranma accepts, expecting it to be a simple battle. Unfortunately for Ranma, Kuno keeps sneezing the entire time. His constant glomping makes the entire school think he's got the hots for Kuno. And so, hilarity ensues.

And then there's the "Fishing Rod of Love", which will make anyone who get snagged with it fall head-over-heels for whoever fished them. Ryoga ends up buying it to get a shot with Akane. He casts the line blindly and... ends up fishing Ranma instead. The worst part of it is that it's Akane who ends up making the assumption about Ryoga, even after the whole mess is undone. As for Ranma, well, he got off relatively clean.

When Nakamura from Nichijou is finally alone with Nano, she says she wants to know what Nano is actually like. She was referring to how she was constructed, but Nano took her own interpretation.

In Mayo Chiki!, practically all of the school suspects this of the main character, Jiro, after he's seen hanging out with Kanade's butler, Subaru a little too much.

In the first episode of Cyborg 009 VS Devilman, Akira tells Miki that he's sleeping over at Ryo's house. In response, Miki grins and says "How suspicious...," which actually makes Akira blush in embarrassment.

Oswald, the older brother of Lacie in chapter 67 of Pandora Hearts. "I didn't know you swung that way." "I'm not sure what you mean."

D.N.Angel: Daisuke and Satoshi have a lot of Ho Yay together and Satoshi is suspected by fans whether correctly or not that he is gay for Daisuke. In episode 17 Daisuke and Satoshi are at the beach on a school trip and Satoshi helps dig Daisuke out of the sand. Some girls watching end up mistaking them for being gay for each other.

Eitaro from Love Junkies is mistaken for being in a relationship with Obi by his coworkers.

In Nicoichi, the relationship between Makoto and Natsumi is often mistaken as such, because Makoto is simply too good in cross-dressing and thus will appear as a lesbian couple to those who does not know his secret.

High School Boys and Drop-Kicks: The sudden physical closeness between Hidenori (on a visit to his maternal grandparents' hometown) and Kiyohiko was seen by Emi as "Boy Meets Boy".

Manabe of Kotoura-san often have Girls Love fantasies when his girlfriend Haruka is a bit too close with another girl in the cast; once between Haruka and Yuriko is episode 2 and once between Haruka and Hiyori in episode 5.

In One Piece, Nami and Franky switch bodies, and Nami, in Franky's body, gets taken away by Rock and Scotch. Nami, forgetting she is in Franky's body, starts screaming about how sexy "she" is and that guys may want to take "her" for "herself." Rock asks Scotch if he has any idea what their hostage is talking about, to which Scotch assumes Franky must be gay.

In Episode 3 of Servant × Service, Chihaya outright declared Yutaka as her rival. Yutaka at first wondered if "she's the type who likes other women." He was soon disabused of the belief, though, when she started talking cosplay.

An interesting version in A Certain Magical Index. Due to the Angel Fall spell, Touma's father Toya sees Kaori Kanzaki as Stiyl Magnus. Kaori is irritated by this but plays along, but when Touma and Toya accidentally walk in on her bathing, she angrily attacks them with her sword and they barely manage to escape. Toya is confused about why "he" would be so embarrassed about being seen naked by another man and concludes that "he" is gay, adding Not That There's Anything Wrong with That. Toya never learns the truth, which means things would get interesting if he ever met the real Stiyl in the future.

In Servant × Service, the Childhood Friends-turned-Unknown Rival relationship between Yutaka and Jyoji was often mistaken to be gay—Cosplay Otaku Girl Chihaya once used BL to describe their relationship, and it is implied Yutaka's cananova tendencies was in fact a way to clarify his sexual orientations, and both of them do have girlfriends in the end of the anime adaptation.

Princess Jellyfish has this for Tsukimi and Wholesome Crossdresser Kuranosuke. A couple of school kids actually call them lesbians when they see them together, unaware of Kuranosuke's cross-dressing tendencies. It doesn't really help that Kuranosuke was developing feelings for Tsukimi.

A brief gag in Akame ga Kill!. Lubbock is jealous of Tatsumi because all the girls fall for him and tease him with their bodies while they won't give Lubbock the time of day. Tatsumi is really shy and averts his eyes whenever they do this. At one point, Lubbock snaps and yells, "What is wrong with you!? Are you gay!?" Tatsumi denies it.

Love Lucky: When Kirari visits Fuuta's family, her manager rushes inside first and hugs him, making Fuuta's family think he married the manager. Kirari clears the misunderstanding soon after.

The oneshot Kanojo Ni Naritai involves a boy falling for a stereotypical Yuri Genre "prince" character. He begins dressing as a girl to get her to like him but she reveals she's straight. He then proceeds pops open his shirt and reveals he's a boy. They hit it off afterwards.

In the very first episode of Lupin III (Blue Jacket), Zenigata crashes Lupin's wedding to Rebecca in order to arrest him. Rebecca is initially confused and asks if Zenigata is Lupin's jealous ex-boyfriend.

Implied to occur in a dream sequence of the OVA to Lucky Star. Dream-Konata tells Kagami that the only way to wake up is to yell out a specific phrase. Kagami says the phrase "I want to *** with Konata!" as she's waking up, in front of her sister Tsukasa. Tsukasa gets the wrong idea and, despite her sister trying to explain, just says she won't tell anyone as she awkwardly leaves the room.

Marika from Bokura no Hentai frequently got called homophobic slurs in elementary due to her feminine nature. She does like boys but she's transgender, not gay.

A Running Gag in Hatsukoi Zombie, after the protagonist Tarou confesses his love to Ibusuki, the "girl" he liked as a child, hoping that it will make Cute Ghost Girl Eve (who is supposed to represent Ibusuki) disappear. It doesn't work, as Tarou doesn't have any real feelings for the male Ibusuki, but as a result the whole school ends up thinking he's gay. Funny thing is, after a while he doesn't even try to deny it and just goes with it.

Happens in-universe in an episode of Dirty Pair Flash. Man crazy Yuri receives a letter in the beginning of the episode from a secret admirer asking to meet her at a special location. At the same time, the Pair is task with protecting a rich girl from danger. After wondering who the admirer is, Yuri finds out that its actually the rich girl who confesses her love, much to Kei's amusement. Interestingly, Yuri does go on the date.

Greg Rucka mentioned a story that he'd like to do but knows DC would never let him: A group of Gotham socialites are discussing their relationships with Bruce Wayne, and one of them eventually confesses that she's never had sex with him. They compare notes, realise that none of them have actually had sex with Bruce Wayne, and come to the inevitable conclusion...

Subverted in Young Avengers: Billy's trying to tell his parents he's a superhero but ends up coming out to them in a totally different way - except that he really is gay and his parents think his boyfriend is the perfect son-in-law.

Stephan Pastis was, amazingly, able to get one of these jokes into Pearls Before Swine. Rat, being as cynical as ever, stayed in bed due to his view of the world. Pig got in bed with him and Rat tried to get out before anyone saw. Goat eventually came in, resulting in an incredibly awkward moment for the three of them.

The old women in Crackerjack's boarding house think his secret identity is gay because he's a "theater type" with long hair.

Nightingale and Sunbird also face rumors of lesbianism after an unlicensed comic portrayed them as "closer than sisters" and strongly implied there was something going on there

The relationship between Nico and Karolina in Runaways was complicated by Karolina's crush on Nico. When Nico swore off men after learning that her boyfriend Alex Wilder was The Mole who had betrayed them Karolina believed that Nico had decided to "switch" and subsequently attempted to kiss her and was gently rebuffed. The resulting conversation is extraordinarily awkward as Karolina wonders if the problem is that she is going "too fast," whereas Nico had never realized that Karolina was in love with her in the first place. The Ship Tease between the two characters would be a regular occurrence through the remainder of the series' run, and it was eventually revealed that Nico and Karolina did eventually kiss, though the kiss was never seen in the comic or described in detail.

In the Peter DavidSupergirl title, Linda Danvers's parents get the wrong idea when she attempts to tell them about the huge, identity-altering secret she's been keeping.

Linda: I'm not gay! I'm Supergirl!

Empowered had a supervillain team called "Rum, Sodomy, and The Lash". When Emp confronts The Lash, he sadly explains that Rum had to go to an AA meeting, and Sodomy got tired of explaining that he only represents heterosexual sodomy and quit.

Early on in J. Michael Straczynski's Spider-Man run, when Aunt May discovers the truth about her nephew's super-hero identity she admits that for the longest time due to his sometimes odd behavior and natural sensitivity she thought he was gay.

In Rawhide Kid: The Sensational Seven, openly gay Rawhide Kid figures his compatriot the Two-Gun Kid for gay based on his costume — stuff like the kerchief, the mask, the print on the vest. When they talk about it, Two-Gun is mortified and says he has to rethink his look, but Rawhide encourages him to keep it the same, saying that being tough is about standing your ground, being true to yourself, and not caring about what other people think.

Quicksilver once confessed to his on-again-off-again wife Crystal that he'd begun seeing someone, and it was a man. She was a bit shocked but said she understood. As it turned out, he was "seeing" Doc Samson, a psychologist.

In Kick-Ass, this happens to Dave Lizewski after he gets beaten up twice while trying to be a real-life superhero, with the kids at school assuming he's a gay prostitute who keeps getting beaten up by his clients. Dave goes along with it for a while since his crush, Katie Deauxma, adopts him as a gay best friend. The situation does not end well. After acting the part of the Gay Best Friend (including spray tanning her topless), he admits it was all a ruse. Katie is furious, and has her boyfriend beat him up, followed by a graphic photo of their sex sent by phone.

In Judd Winick's Green Lantern, when Kyle learns his art assistant, Terry Berg, is gay and having trouble coming out, he asks his editor how he handled it. The editor explains that he didn't, because he's not gay.

Happens to Doctor Strange in the miniseries The Oath often enough to qualify as a running gag. First, random street toughs assume he and his friend and servant Wong are a gay couple, then Night Nurse seems to assume that Wong calling Stephen 'master' is sexual in nature (alluded to by her remark about his being unable to pass comment on 'other people's fetishes'). Then Reginald Pavlish, a would-be patient of Strange's in his last days as an arrogant young surgeon offers 'something else' to repay Strange, in what reads very nearly as an inverted Scarpia Ultimatum (Strange turns him down anyway.)

Fan Works

Frequent in fanfiction. Very. For example, this (in some form) features in thisWatchmen fanfiction written for Yuletide Treasure. It features a scene of Ozymandias awkwardly jumping to the conclusion that he's being mistaken for gay during an interview — Not That There's Anything Wrong with That.

Somehow, James inverts this in Co Op Mode by mistaking Taylor mistaking him for gay because of the way she had let him massage her.

In a oneshot called Archer of King Arthur the knights of the round table start to believe Archer is GAR for the king based on all the looks he sends him when he's not looking.

In Shocker: Legit, Shocker comes to the conclusion that Peter Parker is gay — based largely on a comment Peter accidentally makes about wearing spandex.

Meta example: Undocumented Features was written over many long nights where the three authors would go up to their room and plot, and their classmates thought they were gay (or at least bisexual) because who writes fiction on a Friday night?

Hilariously enough, despite acting like a stereotypical gay man (and the Double Entendres don't help), Zarbon is revealed to have a girlfriend in Dragon Ball Z Abridged. Even Freeza was shocked to find out he was straight. Course, in turn, Zarbon's surprised that everyone thought he was gay. Despite acting Ambiguously Gay even after being outed as straight. Freeza remains convinced that his "girlfriend" is named Chuck, but Word of God from TFS confirmed that Zarbon really is straight.

A driving force of the conflict during the start of Assumptions. Everyone assumes this about the athletic, tomcoltish Rainbow Dash. Even her friend Pinkie Pie thinks this, and was hoping to "experiment" with her. One of the reasons she's falling for Caramel, who she'd ignore otherwise, is because he's a nice conversation partner that doesn't judge her.

In New Chance, a ten year old Naruto tells Gaara that he thinks Haku and Sai are gay. While the rest of the Konoha 12, Haku and Sai are eavesdropping. His reasons being that Haku likes dressing like a woman a little too much and he mistakes Sai's attempt to make friends as a case of Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?.

Naruto: "Haku and Sai have some serious image issues. I think they're gonna come out the closet one day."

Haku: (thinking) "If we compared the number of fangirls we each had, he'd find out he was wrong."

In the Bleach / Kill la Kill crossover To My Death I Fight, Isshin Kurosaki reveals that he thinks Uryu is gay just because he sews, and asks if his father knows he's in the closet. When Uryu indignantly says his father was the one who taught him how to sew, Isshin assumes his father is gay too.

In Same Time Next Year, according to Nabiki, Akane's frequent statements about how she hates boys have led to a few people wondering if she's a lesbian.

In Vino Veritas? has Ranma, in female form, buying a pregnancy test for Akane. Shampoo runs into him at the store, and assumes that the pregnancy test is for him, due to him being in girl form.

In Ultra Fast Pony, "A Library With No Twilight", Phil encourages Applejack and Rarity to make out. Both of them yell at Phil—and Applejack is surprised at Rarity's reaction, because she'd always assumed Rarity was gay.

The Pandora Hearts fanfic Beyond The Winding Road has Oz and Vincent, before Oz can explain who Vincent really is. His mother mistakes Oz's idea for a family meeting as him being about to come out of the closet and Vincent for his boyfriend, and she's accepting to the point of embarrassing. Oz actually does come out in a way, but it's more about identity than sexual orientation.

In Loki: Agent of Doomgard Verity implies to her mother that Loki doesn't date women to stop her from playing matchmaker. Loki naturally rather uses this opportunity for trolling and doesn't even try to clear the misunderstanding.

The Second Try: When Touji meets Kaworu, he wonders if he's gay. However, when Touji asks him, Kaworu is genuinely clueless about what Toji was implying (but he finds his reaction "very interesting" anyway).

Toji: Hey, you know... the way you're moving and talking... and that smiling... you're not... I mean not that I'd have anything against it... but still... Kaworu: I am afraid I do not know what you are referring to. Toji: Yeah, sure, never mind.

In Savage, Ichigo assumed Tatsuki and Orihime were dating from how close they are. The fact Orihime says stuff like "I promised Tatsuki I would come back to her" really doesn't help matters.

Due to some misunderstandings in I still Say it Looks like a Nail, Xander thinks his uncle Jack O'Neil is gay when he brings up military regulations preventing a relationship with someone named Sam. Later when Xander meets SG 1, he thinks "Sam" and "Danny" are short for "Samuel" and "Danielle" rather than Samantha and Daniel, leading to further misunderstandings.

In Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, Barry Allen decides to tell his mother that he's The Flash, but gets embarrassed when she interrupts and says she already knows he's gay and she's not ashamed. He corrects her, then realizes he has bigger problems when she has no idea who The Flash is (the timeline has changed).

In Superman Unbound, Steve Lombardi assumes that Clark is gay (oblivious to the fact that Clark and Lois are dating), commenting that he never seems interested in women, and doesn't follow sports, but stays in shape. Lois turns it on Steve and asks if he's interested in Clark.

Monsters, Inc. did this with Mike and Sulley several times but only if you squint really hard.

Films — Live-Action

Little Fockers - The principal of the private school Greg is looking at assumes that Jack and Greg are a couple, a situation not helped by a confused account of the events of the night before when Greg helped Jack with a priapism episode.

The Bollywood movie Kal Ho Na Ho has this going on between the two male protagonists, played for laughs. First they get totally wasted and pass out in bed together; totally innocent but when the Indian maid walks in she is horrified. Then later she finds them yelling at each other in what looks like a lover's quarrel. Things like this continue to happen, freaking her out more and more. Finally when the man she is actually a maid to gets married to a woman, she is so happy that she actually hits/shoves the obviously gay interior decorator when he gets too close to the groom.

Happens in the Bollywood film Dostana when the two male leads are trying to get a flat. They run with it, because it was the only way to get the place. It backfires though.

The plot of Three To Tango is that Chicago architect Oscar Novak is mistaken for gay and has to keep up the charade because he was hired for the contract of his life on the assumption he was gay so he could act as a safe companion for his new boss's mistress Amy. Hilarity Ensues.

The French movie The Closet subverts this; when a photoshopped picture of the main character at a very gay bar in a very gay outfit shows up at his office, he is seen as gay by everyone despite no outward mannerism changes. This is intentional; the photo is sent by his neighbor in an attempt to use discrimination fears to avoid the impending layoff of the main character.

This appears in Snakes on a Plane, in which the effeminate, comic-relief air steward states early on that he can't wait to see his girlfriend, resulting in disbelieving remarks from his colleagues. At the end of the film, he is reunited with his girlfriend who turns out to be both real and highly attractive (and also apparently every bit as bubble-headed as he is), while the rest of the characters express their surprise.

The film Clue features Mr. Green, whose blackmail-worthy secret is that he's gay. In the third ending, the final line of the film is him declaring he's going to go home and "sleep with [his] wife." (He was actually an undercover agent, and pretended to be homosexual to protect his family. Or, this being Hoover's FBI, he was a homosexual who pretended to be a heterosexual pretending to be a homosexual. Interpretations vary.)

In the movie In & Out, Kevin Kline's character is "outed" as a joke by a former student of his, and spends most of the movie denying that he is gay. The trope is ultimately subverted when it turns out he really is gay.

In Sextette, Sir Michael Barrington (Timothy Dalton) is confused by the media of being gay, and Barrington constantly reinforces this rumor by naively declaring such lines as "Well, yes, I would say so. Always gay, never depressed. Happy and gay. That's my motto", "It's queer to me," he's a "man's man" and that as a coxswain he "coxed the entire crew."

American Beauty: The paranoid ex-Marine neighbor wrongly suspects his son and the protagonist (played by Kevin Spacey) of having a homosexual affair. As it turns out, he's a closet case himself.

Ashley's best friend Dan in Over Her Dead Body who it turns out started to pretend to be gay after he is mistaken for it just to stay close to her.

In My Best Friend is a Vampire, Jeremy's parents misinterpret what's going on and conclude that their son is gay. This being 1980s Texas, they're very relieved when Jeremy introduces new girlfriend Darla at the end of the movie.

In an early scene in Independence Day, Captain Hiller (Will Smith) ends up with a friend on one knee (demonstrating how to properly kiss ass) and holding a wedding ring box (which had just fallen out of Hiller's locker). At that precise moment, another pilot happens by, sees the situation, and walks off with his hands up in a "don't mind me" gesture.

In Dogma, Bethany assumes that Loki and Bartleby are lovers because of some ambiguous phrasing in Bartleby's conversation. Bartleby immediately denies that they're gay, but technically since neither of them has a biological gender he's not necessarily denying anything, or at least the Slash Fic writers would like to think so ...

The Bollywood film Heyy Babyy has Riteish Deshmukh accidentally offer a flower to a male party guest. He's highly embarrassed at his faux pas, even more so when the male party guest's confusion gives way to a coquettish smile in return.

Lethal Weapon 4. Murtaugh doesn't understand why young detective Lee Butters keeps trying to butter him up, not knowing that Butters has secretly married his daughter. Riggs, who knows the truth, suggests that Butters is gay. Naturally much Hilarity Ensues until Murtaugh discovers the truth, whereupon he punches Riggs in the face for his prank.

One of the comedic subplots of Bend It Like Beckham concerned Jules's mother being convinced her tomboyish daughter was a lesbian and her best friend, Jess, was her girlfriend. This is established by having her overhear Innocent Innuendos with incredible serendipity. Probably the most notable moment is when she starts coming up the stairs towards her daughter's room, where she's speaking with Jess about her relationship with the football team's coach -

Jules: You don't know the meaning of love!

This is probably a nod the original script, in which Jess and Jules were actually going to be outright lovers (before Chadha decided that that would be just too alien for a mainstream audience on top of Jess' Indian culture). It's not the only such surviving artifact of that plot.

And played both ways, as Jules' non-traditional interests and Gender-Blender Name cause Jess' family to think she's a boyfriend from her description.

In My Favorite WifeCary Grant's character Nick is mistaken for gay after he refuses to sleep with his second wife on their wedding night because his first wife has just returned from the (presumed) dead. Since the movie was made in 1940, they had to do the whole mistaken for gay subplot without ever saying the word "gay" or "homosexual" (in fact, they had to make do without any direct reference to sex of any kind). It's still surprisingly clear, especially when a therapist the (second) wife hired apparently finds Nick trying on a dress.

In Wild Wild West, the train conductor walked in on Jim West and Artemus Gordon having a discussion on the realistic quality (or lack thereof) of the latter's costume breasts. From the angle the conductor viewed them from, it looked like they were feeling each other up — and it wasn't at all helped by their declarations of "touch my breasts." The conductor just gets a squicked look and mutters "I knew it."

In Bernie, the title character snaps and kills his friend Marjorie after she pushes him too far. During a later conversation with one of the townspeople, Bernie asks if it's possible for someone to snap under duress and do something terrible that they couldn't possibly have done under normal circumstances. He's covertly referring to killing Marjorie, but the woman he's talking to thinks he's trying to confess to being gay.

In the first The Naked Gun movie, Det. Frank Drebin had just rendered a baseball umpire unconscious to "borrow" his uniform. He removes the uniform, props the umpire over a table and proceeds to undress himself. Moments later, a janitor walks into the room, sees Drebin and the umpire, says "Whoops! Sorry, fellas!" and nonchalantly leaves.

Max: There was a guy in the bathroom who's really hot. 99: (surprised) Okay, well... Max: No, no, no, radioactive hot. Although, yes, he did have a certain rugged quality that some find appealing.

Max is trying to get Shtarker off a table. A minion passing by sees what appears to be "humping" Shtarker. The minion smiles appreciatively. (This scene was actually cut down for the final version of the film; the deleted part of the scene has the mook complaining that the boss is allowed that when he isn't.)

In Kick-Ass, after Dave is beaten up and stabbed by thugs and ran over by a car, his classmates believe him to be gay, because he was found with no clothes on. After hearing this, Katie quickly takes an interest in him becoming her Gay BFF, Dave goes along with it to be close to her. This is a remnant from the comic, which went into more detail and revolved around the fact that he was repeatedly found with no clothes on in a bad part of town, which lead people to think he was working as an underage prostitute.

In I Love You, Man, a guy misinterprets the intentions of Peter (Paul Rudd), which is to say he's just looking for a guy best friend, and promptly kisses him on the mouth.

The Children's Hour, and the source play, is about two teachers who are sabotaged by a student when she starts a rumor that they're in a gay love affair. Given that this is the early 20th century it's not taken lightly. Parents remove all the kids from the school, they lose a law-suit against the child's grandmother which causes them to become public disgraces around America, their reputation is ruined, and one of their fiancées dumps them since he believed the lie. The twist ending is, as implied multiple times in the film, that Martha was really gay.

In the film Cashback, the main character and his friend Sean (in a flashback) narrowly avoid being caught looking at a dirty magazine, but fail to hide their erections...

Voiceover: After that, Sean's mum always thought we were gay.

In 17 Again, Maggie concludes that Mike is gay after he is obviously squicked by her advances, not knowing, of course, that he's actually the 17 year old version of her father.

Plan B manages to be a combination of both this and Gay Bravado. Bruno catches Pablo, the boyfriend of his ex Laura, checking him out openly at the gym, which leads him to believe that Pablo is bisexual and pretend to be gay/bi-curious himself to seduce Pablo away from Laura so that he can hook back up with her. However, it turns out that Pablo isn't actually bi and was just checking out Bruno because he looked uncannily like a man in a certain photo of Laura's, and is clearly unsure of what to think about his new friend's subtle and not-so-subtle "flirting" with him. Then all of this is subverted/deconstructed/zigzagged/something when Pablo and Bruno both realize that they've genuinely fallen in love with each other nonetheless.

In The Fifth Element, when Father Vito Cornelius opens his front door to find several hulking Mooks there to kidnap him:

Cornelius: Weddings? Right Arm: Not really.

A Played for Drama example in Higher Learning: Remy, a lonely college student, is approached by a young, bald-headed man one night on the campus square. The young man asks Remy to come with him, causing Remy to become suspicious and angrily demand to know if the other guy is a "faggot." As it turns out, the bald kid is actually a neo-Nazi skinhead who has witnessed Remy being bullied by his black dormmates and thinks he'll make a good recruit to the "white power" cause.

In Cursed, Jimmy becomes stronger and more confident after being bitten by a werewolf, combined with emitting sexual allure. His closeted bully Bo becomes attracted to him and assumes that Jimmy's change in attitude means he's closeted himself.

Happens in 42 when Ralph Branca tries to coax Jackie Robinson to shower with the rest of the baseball team instead of waiting for the others to finish.

In the 2006 film DOA: Dead or Alive, Bass Armstrong assumes his daughter Tina is in relationships with Christie and Kasumi when he walks in on Tina and Christie sharing a bed, and later Kasumi giving Tina a shoulder rub. Christie doesn't help when she sort-of hugs Tina and mentions that she sleeps in the nude and wants Tina to do the same. After Bass leaves, Tina kicks Christie out of the bed (literally), and the latter is not nude.

But I'm a Cheerleader: Everyone but Megan knows that she's gay. Also a very butch girl at the reeducation camp Megan's parents send her to "comes out" as straight, having been mistaken for gay just because of her looks.

In Loverboy, Randy is a pizza delivery boy who ends up hooking up with a rich middle-aged Italian woman named Alex. She basically becomes his Sugar Momma. When Randy's father reads some of the letters Alex sends him and notices Randy receiving expensive gifts brought by a guy, he assumes, to his horror, that Randy is gay (Alex being a gender-neutral name). Near the end of the movie, this saves Randy from a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown by three men he cuckolded when one of them (who turns out to be a friend of his father's) remembers Randy's father telling him about his son.

In Go, Adam and Zack bicker like an old married couple, causing a girl at the supermarket to think that they're gay. In a surprise reveal, it turns out that they are.

Water (1985). Michael Caine enters the island's prison and finds its two inmates hiding under the bed as a bomb is about to go off.

"Are you two digging a tunnel or committing an unnatural act?"

In Moscow on the Hudson, Robin Williams' character, who recently defected from the Soviet circus, notices a man, to whom he made a passing greeting, following him down the street. When he confronts the man: "KGB?" "No, GAY. I thought we shared a moment back there."

In Crank: High Voltage, mob boss Don Kim orders Chev Chelios and Venus into his limo for a discussion. Venus' medical condition makes him go into spasms every once in a while, and the spasms make him look like he's trying to hump Don Kim. Enraged, Don Kim has Venus thrown out of the limo, then comments to Chev, "Your friend, has the gay condition."

In Shampoo, Lester asumes George is gay because he's a hairdresser; in reality, George is The Casanova.

Casa Nova in Kayfabe: A Fake Real Movie About A Fake Real Sport is suspected of being gay by several of the wrestlers as a result of his obsession with his oiled physique, his refusal to wear pants in the locker room, and his tendency to refuse to let go of certain holds in the ring because "it's hot". At the end of the film, we meet his beautiful fiancée, Tatiana.

Harry Dresden has frequently been mistaken for his maternal half-brother Thomas Raith's lover, to Harry's dismay and Thomas' great amusement. Harry uses this to his advantage once when caught snooping in Thomas' apartment. It doesn't help when word gets to the SI division in .005 seconds.

In a case similar to the one of the film examples above, Thomas, when he gets a 'real job' as a hair dresser, deliberately poses as a flamboyantly gay European because there is no such thing as a 'good, high class, straight American' hairdresser.

The first time that medical examiner Waldo Butters meets Thomas, he immediately thinks Harry and Thomas are a couple—and this is before the events in the first example. Harry tries to convince Butters otherwise. It doesn't work, thanks to Thomas.

The most humorous possibly being when a little girl tells Aziraphale, "You are rubbish. And probably a faggot."

Also happens in fanfiction, when fics label Aziraphele/Crowley as slash. The book explicitly states that, being angelic, it takes quite a bit of effort for either of them to have a gender.

The screenplay manages to take this even further, with nearly everyone in Tadfield with rooms to let thinking they're gay and refusing them a room.

There's also this (also from the screenplay),

Madame Tracy: Would that be a room each, or do you share? (simultaneously) Crowley: A room each. Aziraphale: We'll share.

Fitz and Lord Golden (aka the Fool) in the Tawny Man trilogy. More of a Played for Drama example, as Fitz is deeply uncomfortable with this and at least a little bit homophobic. It doesn't help that the Fool describes himself as being in love with Fitz, though he also states that his feelings are not sexual. More accurately, the Fool's feelings are not necessarily sexual. He tells Fitz that he 'puts no limits' on his feelings, but he knows Fitz isn't interested and therefore it wasn't a conversation that ever needed to happen.

Happens to Phury in one of J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood books. He kisses Rehvenge to shut the latter up after being "accused" of being gay. The Reverend is not at all thrilled the Brother called his bluff.

In The Crystal Cave, 12-year-old Merlin meets Count Ambrosius, who turns out to be his father. Ambrosius gives him a fine set of rooms, a tutor and a servant. Given Ambrosius' seeming lack of interest in women, Ambrosius' brother Uther, who's always having affairs with women, assumes from this considerate treatment that Merlin is Ambrosius' catamite, even though Ambrosius has displayed no interest in boys either.

In Mississippi Jack, a man mistakes Jacky's riverboat tavern for a brothel. When she tries to set him straight, he assumes that the girls "must take care o' business amongst yerselfs", adding that the idea makes him sick.

Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan is temporarily mistaken for gay by her own mother, mostly because she's 23 and hasn't had a boyfriend yet.

Jonah, best friend of the title character of MaryJanice Davidson's Fred the Mermaid series is constantly this trope, even by the woman he winds up marrying. He's actually a Camp Straight.

This happens twice in Why We Took The Car: First at the beginning, when Tschick is convinced Maik is gay, and again, when Isa thinks Maik and Tschick are wearing lipstick after they ate brambleberries.

In Alexis Carew: HMS Nightingale, Alexis' first officer Midshipman Villar is attracted to Marie, a single mother Alexis rescued from Giron in The Little Ships, but Villar walked in on them sleeping in Alexis' bed on the way to drop Marie off with Alexis' grandfather. Once he finally manages to work around to saying what he thought, Alexis bursts out laughing and explains that no, both of them are straight and they only slept in the same bed because installing a second bunk in the captain's quarters wasn't practical for either of them (Marie had to be able to get up in the middle of the night to deal with her baby, and Alexis is too short to comfortably climb to an upper bunk).

Villar: You said your sweetheart was French! Alexis: Yes, French. A Frenchman. A French man, Mister Villar — a lieutenant in their navy.

During the Mike/Molly honeymoon episode, Carl receives a temporary patrol partner, a handsome but stone-faced young man, whom Carl is his usual overly-considerate self to. Towards the end of the episode, the partner kisses Carl full on the mouth, having interpreted his overtures of friendship as romantic advances.

In Drop Dead Diva Jane is concerned with Stacy's behavior in one episode so has Paul spy on her. He sees her having lunch with a woman and assumes Stacy's a lesbian. Stacy later tells Jane she's not, she wants to have a baby via sperm donor and asked the woman who IS a lesbian for advice.

Kurt mistakes new club member Sam as gay. However, little humour comes out of this misunderstanding and it was only to tease viewers who were expecting Sam to be Kurt's new boyfriend.

Sam is once again mistaken for gay later on in the season after he's caught coming out of a motel room with Kurt.

And in another Sam example, when Blaine is buying an engagement ring for Kurt, Sam rushes into the store saying how he wants to support Blaine because he loves him and he wants to help pick out the ring. The saleslady assumes Sam is the guy Blaine is planning on proposing to. Doesn't help that they are extremely physically affectionate towards each other.

Constable Goody of The Thin Blue Line suffers badly from this trope. His speech, his mannerisms, his hobbies (gladiators) and many of the things he says give off the distinct impression that he's as gay as Christmas wrapper paper. In fact, he only has one non-stereotypically-gay characteristic: He lusts after women. There have been several misunderstandings involving Goody, such as his uncertainty about "coming out" (he neglected to mention he had been invited out for an illegal drink) and when he misunderstood something Gladstone said...

Gladstone: You know, fellas that talk about it most do it least. I know. I talk about it all the time, and I haven't had any since the days of Harold Wilsonnote Harold Wilson was the British Prime Minister 1964-1970 and 1974-1976.

Goody: I never knew you were in a gay relationship!

A surprisingly mature episode of My Parents Are Aliens, Josh, in one of his typical schemes attempts to start a relationship with a pretty, rich girl, but quickly learns she has a terrible personality even he can't deal with, so he asks Sophie to pose as his girlfriend, telling her to morph into someone "I'd want to spend time with". She morphs into his best friend Pete, not understanding the concept of gender and sexuality, and gives a romantic speech about her feelings for Josh, including putting her arm around Josh and referring to him as "my everything", all while in the shape of a boy. The next day the rich girl "outs" Josh to the entire school, encouraging Josh and (the real) Pete to be open about their feelings.

Pete (mildly curious) Does this mean you're my boyfriend now?

The Seinfeld episode "The Outing": Jerry and Elaine and George are messing around at the diner. Jerry and George pretend to act gay when Jerry brings up that people always think that he's gay because he's thin and neat. And this reporter who is supposed to interview Jerry for a newspaper story overhears them fooling around and thinks that they're actually gay. So when she comes to Jerry's apartment, they act exactly like they always do — bickering like an old married couple, but with disastrous effects. When they realizes she thinks they're lovers, she leaves in midst of them trying to say otherwise. More mix-ups occur, strengthening the reporter's belief, the story gets printed, and Hilarity Ensues.

Also in the episode "The Subway": Elaine tells a lady on the subway that she is the best man at a lesbian wedding and the lady mistakes Elaine for a lesbian herself and is Squicked.

Elaine: You don't understand!!!! I'm not a lesbian!!! I hate men but I'm not a lesbian!!!!

In one episode a series of misunderstandings based on the initial assumption that Frasier is gay leads to a character concluding the entire family is. Another has Marty acting gay for Frasier's sake (he's interested in a woman who's trying to matchmake for her gay uncle).

Frasier has a lot of characters being mistaken for gay, and the meta joke is that the actors playing them are gay.

Bulldog Briscoe (Dan Butler, who is gay) in Fortysomething:

Carrie: (thinking Bulldog is overcompensating) Is he gay?

Niles Crane (David Hyde Pierce, who is gay) in a few episodes, including The Matchmaker:

Tom: (after learning Frasier isn't gay) But Niles - come on!

Frasier: No, I'm afraid not.

Tom: Huh... so wait a minute, this Maris guy he kept mentioning is a woman?

Frasier: Well, the jury's still out on that one.

Martin Crane (John Mahoney, who is gay) in a few episodes, including the aforementioned The Matchmaker and the plot to Out with Dad:

Martin: (after realizing Edward is attracted to him) But what if he asks me for a date?

Frasier: I have news for you: You're on a date!

It leads to a situation in which Niles has to pretend he's his father's lover to reinforce the illusion that Martin is gay, leading to this classic exchange:

Frasier: Niles, Emily just kissed me in the bedroom and now she's leaving. I have never been so embarrassed in my life.

Niles: You're embarrassed?! They think the best I can do is an old man with a cane!

Guy (Who thought that Niles was flirting with him) to Martin: Maybe the Rum is clouding my judgement, but Niles... is he...

Martin (Thinking he is talking about Nile's crush on Daphne): No, stop right there. You got it, he got it bad.

Guy: Really?! This is not an uncomfortable subject for you?

Martin: No, no no - Niles have had those feelings for years! Of course, I didn't approve of them during his so called marriage, but now when he is single, I say let do what makes him happy! I say go for it!

Guy: [Wistfully] You are a wonderful father.

Leading later to:

(Frasier walking into the room where Guy is naked and waiting for Niles, expecting to see Daphne's friend who he's been chasing all episode)

Guy: You are not the Crane I want.

Frasier: You're not even the sex I want.

In The Doctor Is Out, flamboyantly gay opera director Alistair is introduced to Niles and Daphne:

Daphne: And I'm Daphne, Niles' wife.

Alistair:(amused) No.

Niles: We're expecting.

Alistair: Can't say I was.

Later:

Frasier: He does not think I'm gay.

Niles: He thinks I'm gay, and I'm standing next to my pregnant wife.

The lone exception is the effeminate radio food critic Gil Chesterton (Edward Hibbert, who is gay), who for the first ten seasons of Frasier viciously denies he's gay and claims to be a Chick Magnet. In the fifth season episode The Perfect Guy, Gil reacts hotly to Frasier and Roz thinking he was gay and living alone with his cat, claiming to be married to a woman named "Deb" (who has a lot of masculine, lesbian-like traits like being an auto mechanic).

Frasier: Well, that's the first time I've ever seen a man "in" himself.

In the eleventh season, however, Gil finally came out of the closet, starting with The Doctor is Out, in which he serruptiously visits a gay bar named Bad Billy's, after earlier giving Frasier advice on coming out:

Gil: I just want to say that your KACL family will be here for you as you take your first brave steps on that yellow brick road to pride and self-acceptance and...

Frasier: Oh, shut up, you big queen! (storms off)

Gil: I see Kitty has claws.

So would that make Frasier a literal Cast Full of Gay? Apparently everybody but the title character's actor likes men. Whoda thunk it?

This ploy was actually a plot device and a Running Gag on Three's Company It was actually intentional on the roommates' parts, in that that is the only way that a single man and two single women would be able to share residence was that the Ropers wouldn't allow it unless the man was gay. Jack was ready to drop the lie when Mr. Furley took over, but the same issue arose, forcing him to resume the charade. It was abandoned late in the series life when Jack "came out" as straight.

WKRP in Cincinnati: Meek weirdo Les Nessman is mistaken for gay by a pro athlete. This being the 70s, he threatens suicide until the accusation is retracted. Even it being the 70s doesn't excuse Les's overreaction though, which was the point; the character was the archetype of an old-time Red-baiting conservative who would jump out the window if somebody questioned his sexuality. Johnny or Venus would have just laughed it off. What was shocking about it for the 70s was Herb Tarlek telling Les that he didn't care if Les was gay.

In the episode "Phases" (Season 2, Ep. 15), Xander believes that local Jerk Jock Larry is a werewolf and tries to get him to confess, saying that he "knows what Larry's been doing at night" and that he went through something similar (alluding to the time he was possessed by a hyena spirit). It then comes out that Larry is not a werewolf, but he is gay, and now he thinks that Xander is too. The mistaken sexuality continues in the episode "Earshot" (Season 3, Ep. 18).

The episode "Gone" (Season 6, Ep. 11) where Buffy receives a visit from a social worker about Dawn. Buffy's forgetfulness of a certain redhead leads to the following exchange. Worth noting is that it's hard to say if Ms. Kroger really believed Buffy.

In the episode, "Disharmony", Cordelia mistakes Harmony as being gay, when Harmony is actually trying to tell her she is a vampire.

Cordelia: [on phone with Willow] Ohhh! Harmony's a vampire? That's why she—Oh, my God, I'm so embarrassed. (laughs) All this time, I thought she was a great big lesbo...! (long pause while Willow says something) Oh, yeah? Really? Well that's great. Good for you!

Happens so much with Wesley that it could be considered a Running Gag.

In Expecting (1x12), Cordelia has a couple of friends come by the office. Angel and Wesley start talking to each other to distract from Cordelia having a vision and Wes flings his arm around Angel's shoulders in what he intends to be a display of brotherly affection, only to have one of the girls mutter "The good ones are always gay." Lampshaded very funnily later in the episode, when Angel and Wesley are talking and Wesley asks if Angel thinks he has a shot with the (gorgeous) girls. Angel says he thinks so, which leads to this.

Wesley: What about them thinking we're gay?

Angel: It adds mystery.

In Carpe Noceem (3x04), An old man possessing Angel's body hears about a romantic entanglement with someone named "Fred," looks down at what Angel is wearing, and mutters, "Obviously." This also causes him to mistakenly try to break up with "Fred" (actually Wesley) before he figures out that Fred is a girl (Winifred).

In Harm's Way (5x09), employees at Wolfram & Hart are discussing who they think is interested in Fred. Harmony suggests Wesley but is shot down because there's an established belief at the firm that Wesley is gay.

In the second episode of the series, the group is questioning folks at a singles bar - we see Angel anxiously telling a guy "No, really, I wasn't hitting on you!"

When Kate Lockley's father mistakes Angel for her boyfriend, he says he's glad because he suspected she was a lesbian.

Done twice over by Faith who mistook Lilah for a lesbian when Lilah tried to recruit Faith to work as an assassin for them. Faith apparently accepted "the pickup" in order to mug her.

[Lilah and Faith leaves a club.]Faith: We can go and talk, but I'm not much of an talker. I'm more of a doer. Lilah[smirks] I think you might have misunderstood my intentions. Faith: No I think you misunderstood mine. [slams her up against a wall and grabs her wrist.] I like that watch.

Subversion: In an episode of Cheers, Norm — whom it is revealed has a native talent for interior decor — decides to pursue that field instead of his previous career. However, he discovers that he has to pretend to be "stylish" in order to be taken seriously as a decorator.

A character from Ugly Betty (a straight fashion designer) has this dilemma.

Matt Damon's character in Will & Grace is a straight man in a gay glee club.

A mischievous girl convinces both Reese and Malcolm that the other is gay in Malcolm in the Middle, which leads to some amusing conversations.

This episode also led into a Crowning Moment Of Heart Warming, since the brothers, instead of teasing each other as it would have been expected, actually accept the fact that the other one is gay and try to support each other.

Another example is one episode when Francis is in military school helping out with a beauty pageant(of course, he's only helping to meet some girls). When he is backstage with one of the girls, she says something to the effect of, "It's okay if you're gay. We're a lot more open here[Alabama] than you think." He milks this for all its worth to be able to feel up the girls without them noticing. Eventually, he slips up and tells a girl she's sexy. He covers it up by saying that when he looks at her, he feels like maybe he could change. They are talking, and just as it looks as if they're going to kiss, the scene switches to him at a church service for "curing" gayness.

A running joke in Friends, with Chandler the target. Originally from a first season episode "The One Where Nana Dies Twice", where we discover most of the friends thought he was gay when they first met him. Apparently he has "a quality". His gay co-workers disagree.

The one where Chandler uses a subliminal motivational tape so he can quit smoking, but it's for women. Also the one where he and Joey are mistaken for a couple when they are seen with baby Ben.

Chandler and Joey get this a lot; half of Chandler's 'gayness' comes from the way that him and Joey are frequently portrayed as a married couple, with Gilligan Cut style jokes to this effect.

Brought up in Joey when Gina tells Joey that he and Chandler should have moved out to LA years go because it has a "very friendly gay scene". Joey responds that he and Chandler are not a gay couple.

In Season 5 of How I Met Your Mother Robin's boyfriend at the time, Don thought that Ted was gay because of some effeminate interests like calligraphy, Project Runway, and cooking. That is until he found out Ted is Robin's ex.

When Marshall is on the phone in the narration of a Whole Episode Flashback, he mentions the part where Ted tells Robin his big secret (that he is in love with Zoey) and Marahall's mother who is eavesdropping on the other line immediately shouts out "HE'S GAY!!!".

In another episode, when Robin is trying to sell Barney's apartment, Ted and Marshall come in together (to pretend to be prospective buyers to drum up interest) with baby Marvin. One of the women looking at the apartment misinterprets and assumes he's their son. They decide to roll with it (partly because Marshall is feeling neglected by Lily at the time).

Black Books: Bernard accuses Manny of being gay due to his interest in interior design, specifically nice lamps. Manny protests he likes women (as well as lamps) but admits that he had thought Bernard was gay. Bernard says that he thought so himself, but was put off by the expected high standards of personal hygiene "and all that...dancing!"

Happens to Sam and Dean more than once. It started as a random joke, and has now become a running Fandom Nod. In one episode they pretend to be interested in buying a house, and two realtors, on separate occasions, mention that "we accept homeowners of any race, religion, color, or sexual orientation."

Also happens in the one with the little girl at the old hotel: when they go to check into the hotel, the owner mentions that "We get a lot of gay couples down here because of the great antiques shop."

Leading to this exchange later on:

Dean: Of course, the most troubling question is "Why do these people assume we're gay?" Sam: Well, you are kind of butch. They probably think you're overcompensating.

Happens again in the fourth season premier: when Dean comes back from the dead and proves to Sam it's really him they embrace tearfully and the girl Sam was with earlier says "So you guys are..." before Dean interrupts her with "Brothers." Made funnier by the fact that the girl is later revealed to be Ruby, knows exactly who they are, and was doing it just to mess with them.

And of course the lovely episode when Dean asks for "two queens" at the motel and the lippy kid behind the counter mutters "I bet."

The fact that Supernatural exists as an in-universe franchise (as a book series penned by a prophet of God who is later revealed to actually be God) leads to many hilarious meta episodes. The in-universe fandom seems to be just as obsessed with Ho Yay as the real-life fandom.

In "The Real Ghostbusters", Sam and Dean do some ghost-busting at a Supernatural convention, assisted by a pair of Sam and Dean cosplayers. The convention has an entire panel on "Homoerotic Subtext in Supernatural", and at the end of the episode the cosplayers are revealed to be an actual gay couple.

Dean/Castiel gets a nod in "Fan Fiction", Sam and Dean investigate a musical adaptation of Supernatural at an all-girls school. Dean is a bit concerned when he sees the girl playing him and the girl playing Cas making out, but the writer/director assures him that it's not part of the play, those two girls are actually dating. However, Dean's relief doesn't last long as she goes on to talk about how the play "explore[s] the nature of Destiel in Act 2".

In the season 8 episode "Bitten", the college students the episode focuses on assume that Sam and Dean (who they think are FBI agents) have a "workplace romance" going on.

British sitcom Extras has Andy Millman meet an old school-friend of his who, despite being successful, is still a bigoted Jerk Jock who constantly makes jokes about Andy being gay because he has never seen him chatting up a girl. At the same time Andy is trying to gain recognition in the theatre and gets a starring role in a play by Ian McKellen. He has to play a gay role, something that he appears to get to grips with after his initial annoyance at finding it out, but unfortunately for him his school-friend gets tickets for himself and several of his other homophobic old friends. They also happen to catch him in the dressing room with McKellen with his trousers down, as McKellen calls for some vaseline to cure Andy's non-existent ulcer that he tried to get out of kissing on-stage with.

An episode of the Glaswegian sitcom Still Game was built around this; the Nosy Neighbor Isa happens to catch Victor in Jack's flat very early in the morning, not to mention with his trousers down and talking about finding "arse cream" (the reason being they had opened a door between one another's flats so that they could share their cable television and could avoid Isa in the first place). After she gets over the "gossip-overload", word spreads around. Everyone is more or less tolerant over it, but eventually the entire community is up on the misinformation. Bobby the barman takes things too far by playing ABBA and having everyone in the bar dance to make Jack and Victor feel at home... This only leads the two of them to suspect that Bobby is gay.

Dennis Finch from Just Shoot Me!wishes he were mistaken for gay, as usually he is mistaken for a woman, much to his chagrin. There was one episode where Dennis was mistaken for gay by his own father, but this is not who he wanted to make the mistake. The closest he got was to be mistaken for a lesbian, which actually worked to his advantage... until his true gender was exposed.

Maya was mistaken for lesbian by a model, a situation which Dennis tried to take advantage of.

In yet another episode, Nina is dating a flamboyant magician. When confronted by Jack and Elliott, she reveals that she obviously knows he's gay. However, when she confronts him, he responds with "I'm not gay, I'm British!"

That statement was also used by one of the main characters on the short-lived WB sitcom Left of Center.

And also as a punchline by Bakura in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series. Of course, given that this version of Bakura apparently is repulsed by girls and has magical Gaydar powers, one wonders if he doth protest too much...

Bakura frequently explains "I'm not gay, I'm just British", while the demon possessing him points out "I'm not British, I'm gay".

JAG: Admiral Chegwidden's yeoman Petty Officer Jason Tiner is mistakenly assumed to be this "People v. Gunny". This was back in the days of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

A bizarre variant in 3rd Rock from the Sun: Sally ends up with a guy who's the "most sensitive man she's ever met" and would be very obviously gay to anyone who was actually from the planet Earth. He seems to believe that she's simply a male-to-female transvestite/transsexual, and, despite the fact that he normally has little interest in "people like you", interprets her confused stories about her military background and current desire to "just blend in" as stories about a struggle against homophobic oppression. A series of comical mishaps lead him to think that the whole family is gay. The man only realizes that Sally is a woman when he helps her out of her dress and then promptly breaks up with her.

In another episode, a gay man comes out to Dick, unfortunately describing himself as being "from another world". Dick, of course, thinks he's another alien and immediately says "so am I!" Pretty soon, Dick is hanging out at what he thinks are "alien bars" and enjoying the camaraderie there. He only discovers the truth when Mary finds out and he thus tries to convince her that he's straight. After she leaves the room, he says to himself "I'm an alien. Oh, God, I wish I was gay!"

And then there's the episode in which Sally almost got married. While preparing for the wedding, Tommy discovers his never-again-seen love of doing artsy-crafty things, causing his girlfriend August to spend the whole episode worrying that he's gay.

In a first-season episode, Harry encountered a Camp Gay man played by Phil Hartman who mistook Harry for a fellow homosexual. When Harry talks about how Dick is his "High Commander" and wants him to fit in more, the man replies "Oh, I was in a relationship like that once."

In the episode where Dick and Don become friends, Dick is outraged to discover Don going out with another friend and promptly delivers what sounds very much like a break-up speech. After Dick leaves, Don's friend says "It's okay, Don, I understand. I'm gay, too!"

What about the episode where Dick dressed in drag to infiltrate a women's discussion group and they all thought Dick and Mary were lesbians?

In the second episode of Rosemary And Thyme, the two main characters decide not to tell the local police what they know, because he thinks the two ladies are a couple.

In the 30 Rock episode "Blind Date", Jack sets Liz up with the "brilliant plastics engineer/lesbian" Gretchen Thomas, leading to the top page quote. Matters aren't helped when Liz, being the neurotic wreck that she is, decides to call Gretchen and have a nice chat with her anyway. The others encourage Liz to hook up with her, but Liz insists that they're "just friends, like Oprah and Gale". Given the existence of Liz/Gretchen fan fiction, it seems a sizable number of shippers didn't buy that. Liz offered to, if they were both still single in a few years, live together and if it would make things easier, let Gretchen "do things" to her.

When a reality show starring Tracy's wife filmed in the studio, Jack started reminiscing on camera about his college athletics, unconsciously making it all sound like gay sex (which the show immediately picks up on) - Grizz and Dot Com are very much aware of how it sounds and encourage him to keep talking.

The title characters on Kate And Allie, two single moms sharing an apartment, were mistaken for lesbians by their lesbian landlords, then have to play along to avoid getting thrown out because the landlords don't think they'd qualify as one "family". After a Patrick Stewart Speech about Tolerance, they're allowed to stay.

Bill has been mistaken for straight several times. In Knock Knock one of the boys tried to flirt with her, in Extremis her foster mother was saying she had srict rules about her bringing men back.

In "Let's Kill Hitler", it's revealed that Amy assumed Rory was gay for years, because having seen him practically every day since they were young, she couldn't name a single girl he'd shown the slightestbit of interest in. It takes her a while to finally get it.

In "Closing Time", the Doctor gets mistaken for gay, when he goes out shopping/Cybermen hunting with a baby and Craig. (They were being rather cuddly). The Doctor doesn't appear to notice, actually considering the word "Partner" as a replacement for "companion". Later, he claims to be madly in love with Craig and tries to kiss him, as a distraction.

An episode of Sex and the City had Charlotte dating a pastry chef with a great many "feminine" qualities, including jumping up on a chair when he saw a mouse. Charlotte and the girls think he's closeted gay. Charlotte asks him if he is and he says, "I'm a 35 year old pastry chef who lives in Soho. If I was gay, I'd be gay."

Roommates Leonard and Sheldon of The Big Bang Theory continue to introduce themselves as "living together" even though everyone initially misinterprets this, including their new next-door neighbor Penny and their friend Raj's parents, who think they're "like Haroon and Tanvir." Leonard protests and explains the situation, although later as Sheldon runs to get their special-edition DVD of Fiddler on the Roof he remarks to himself, "Maybe we are like Haroon and Tanvir."

Sheldon was also able to get a date with far more ease then his friends, although at the time he was trying to find a man to set Penny up with, and he didn't realize the miscommunication. Hilarity ensued.

Raj and Howard have this happen to them all the time. There was the time Leonard's psychologist mother said they were in an ersatz homosexual relationship, and they start arguing like an old married couple. Both are straight, but their romantic exploits tend to be...less than successful.

This has become a Running Gag with Raj. In one episode, he invites a childhood friend, Lakshmi, to his apartment for dinner. Lakshmi suggests that they should get married because she's a lesbian, she assumes he's gay and they can "beard" for each other to keep their parents from finding out.

In a Reality Subtext example, some first-time viewers note Sheldon's fussy mannerisms and mistakenly believe that the cast consists of a "regular guy," an Indian, a Jew, and a gay guy. This became Hilarious in Hindsight when Sheldon's portrayer, Jim Parsons, publicly announced his homosexuality.

While Skyping with his parents in India, Raj's mother complains "The closest thing we have to a daughter-in-law is that little Jewish boy!"

Frank Fontana of Murphy Brown is almost always a victim of this. It's delightfully ironic, considering that he's always trying to be the Chick Magnet.

In The Basil Brush Show, Mr. Steve works up the courage to ask a long-haired women for a snogging. He fails to notice the long-haired women being replaced by a long-haired man. The man, when asked by Mr. Steve for a snog, turns and punches Steve. Hilarious. It did anger same gay-rights activists, though. It wouldn't have attracted so much anger if it had been hilarious. It wasn't even that funny when it was tried the first time, back in about 1972.

Remington Steele: Steele is searching a missing man's hotel room when the man's ex-girlfriend happens to come in. Since the boyfriend had mentioned he was dating someone new, she assumes he meant Steele, and laments, "Why is it always the good-looking ones?"

Caroline in the City had Richard finally managing to get his work in a gallery. Unfortunately, he then discovers that said gallery only sponsors gay artists. He initially tries going on with the charade, but eventually confesses. This is particularly amusing because this is not the only time in the series someone mistakenly thinks Richard is gay, and though he isn't (he's the main character's love interest), Malcolm Gets, who plays Richard, is.

In an episode of St. Elsewhere, a hotel receptionist assumes that Drs. Craig and Westphall are a couple.

This is a running joke on Law & Order: two detectives walk into a store or hotel to question someone and are promptly identified as "together."

Occasionally, the detectives masquerade as gay in order to pin down a gay suspect or witness.

In a variation on the theme, a witness once tried to pick up very straight and very conservative Det. Curtiss, much to the amusement of Lenny Briscoe.

This actually becomes an SVU Running Gag, as people continually mistake Olivia for gay. The section of the fandom who think she's in love with Hello, Attorney! Alexandra Cabot lap this up.

Then there's this delightful exchange in "P.C." after a woman tried to kiss Olivia:

Benson: El, do you ever get a gay vibe from me?

Stabler:(beat) Would it matter if I did?

Benson:...You're not answering the question.

Fin and Lake were this trope once. Lake decided to roll with it by putting his hand on Fin's thigh. The look on Fin's face...

In an episode of Inspector Lewis, Lewis and Hathaway are mistaken for a couple by a school headmaster, who assumes they're looking for a school for their child.

Hathaway: (takes Lewis's hand) Darling, I think you should explain.

Korean Boy Band, Dong Bang Shin Ki. In one of their mini-dramas, a member mistook another member's accidental double entendre for the real deal. Turns out the "homosexual" in question just wanted to kiss-up to him for breaking his possession. Needless to say, many girls loved it.

There's another episode where, after Oswald defeats a bruiser-type fellow driver named Joe in a boxing match, the two start hanging out together. Joe starts taking Oswald out to dinner and lavishing him with gifts, including clothes. It takes the rest of Oswald's friends to point out that, if Joe's buying him clothes, then the two are dating. Oswald confronts Joe about this, and Joe is shocked to learn that Oswald isn't gay, and points out that the only reason Oswald won the boxing match was that Joe couldn't hurt his "pretty face". Their conversation also clues Oswald to the fact Joe isn't the first male co-worker that he's been dating.

In All The Small Things, Olive's friends suspect that she's a lesbian because of her unfeminine appearance. In actual fact, she avoids wearing skirts in order to conceal her prosthetic leg.

On Parks and Recreation, Leslie gets a butch haircut at a men's barber, then goes to a political banquet holding Ann's hand. Ann knows what everyone is thinking, but Leslie remains hilariously oblivious.

Ann: This is my evening... I'm Leslie's trophy wife.

There's a lot of Ho Yay in the prison drama Oz, so when Ryan O'Reilly runs into his recently-convicted brother in the prison cafeteria and embraces him, the guard immediately shouts at them to knock it off.

O'Reily::"He's my brother!"

Guard: "Oh yeah? With hair like that he's more like your sister!"

In Wings, Joe and Brian were celebrating and kissed each other on the lips. Everyone else looked at them weird.

In 10 Things I Hate About You, based on the 1999 film, Bianca mistakes her friend Cameron for being gay, despite him being madly in love with her, due to the fact that he's 'so nice' and watching Project Runway though Cameron admits it's only to see Heidi Klum., and, in the episode, he dressed rather gay-like to get Bianca's attention. And it did. Just not the way he planned.

In the Corner Gas episode "Doc Small", Brent is mistaken for gay (and thought to be involved with a man into bestiality) as a result of Hank, a logic puzzle and a $100 bill (It Makes Sense in Context). He doesn't notice.

At the end of the very first Two and a Half Men episode, the brothers are mistaken for life partners while buying cereal. Then later in the series, they had to pretend to be gay for one of Charlie's clients who thinks Charlie's gay. Then when they're buying an engagement ring for Mia, Alan ends up doing most of the talking and the salesman assumes it's for Alan.

A Spin City episode where Mike interrupts one of the Mayor's interviews, referring to himself as "The Man Behind the Man". The interview was for a gay newspaper.

Grounded For Life when Shawn took his kids to the amusement park. It was "Gay Day" there and everyone was wearing tanktop and jeans. Guess what he was wearing...

In "Oy Vey, You're Gay", Maxwell hires publicist Sydney Mercer to improve his image. Sydney is an attractive young blonde woman, and this makes Fran and C.C. jealous. Fran thinks she wants to be with him, and decides to try and wish them the best of luck as a couple, but Sydney tells her she's not interested in Maxwell: "It's his gender!". Fran misinterprets this before she tells her "Fran, I'm gay!". Fran then shouts "Oh, thank God!" and hugs her, but becomes perturbed when she stops hugging and the publicist doesn't:

Fran: I'm letting go and you're not. Why?

Sydney: Aren't you gay, too?

Fran: Me? No!

Sydney: I just assumed. You're over 30, never been married, there's no man in your life...

In "A Fine Friendship", Fran is convinced the male nanny for Gracie's friend is gay. The fact he's also a struggling Broadway actor backs up her assertion, until he and Fran share a passionate kiss. Fran gets upset. She asks "You mean you're not gay?!"

Fran: I know, I heard you. You know, now you and your special friend can dance together at Disneyland!

From True Blood: While Bill is trying to buy some women's clothes (for Jessica), a shop assistant tries to pick him up and doesn't listen when he says he's not interested... not until Eric appears and wants Bill to admire his new haircut.

The subplot of the House episode "The Down Low", when a new neighbor refuses to believe House and Wilson aren't a couple. It doesn't help that House decides to run with it. In order to get close to the (pretty, female, unsuspecting) neighbor.

Happened once in Sanford and Son. Lamont and Rollo accidentally go into a gay bar. When Bubba sees them enter and tells Fred, he starts trying to figure out if his son is really gay. Later, Fred and Bubba try to catch the two in the same bar...and Rollo sees them go inside, making Lamont think his father's gay. Hilarity Ensues.

This happens to Holmes and Watson a few times in the first episode alone. Additionally, they also mistake each other for gay when Holmes answers Watson's questions regarding his social attachments with "girlfriends are 'not really my area'," prompting the latter to ask about boyfriends; Holmes misinterprets Watson's awkward attempts at making conversation as a sign of romantic interest, and tries to 'let him down' politely.

This has now become something of a Running Gag, usually as a means to explain why John can't seem to hold onto his girlfriends. People who have mistaken Sherlock and John for gay by the end of Series 2 include: several of John's girlfriends (who promptly ditch him), the British press, Sherlock's arch-nemesis Moriarty, Sherlock's brother Mycroft, their landlady Mrs Hudson, a gay couple who owned a hotel they were staying in, Sherlock's single-episode crush Irene Adler, a therapist John attempted to flirt with, Angelo the proprietor of their favourite restaurant... It doesn't help that Sherlock, who honestly doesn't give a damn about public opinion, never bothers to deny it, leaving John looking like he's protesting too much.

By the third series, Mrs Hudson's reaction to John revealing he's about to get married is to be shocked that a): it's to a woman and b): that he's in a new relationship so soon after Sherlock, causing an exasperated John (once again) to protest that he is not gay and Sherlock was not his boyfriend!

The series does this when Larry started a protest because the school wouldn't allow gay couples (like his best friend Kenny and Dylan) to a school dance. The TV broad-casted the words "Gay Teen Larry" despite that he's not gay.

Also in an earlier episode, when Larry's parents see him kissing what they think is a boy, but is actually a very Tomboyish girl.

Larry's dad actually thought Larry was gay as early as in the Pilot. His mom, however, did not:

Vicky: Oh, and I told Larry he could stay over at Kenny's Friday night.

Dave: Again? At fifteen, you don't have sleep overs. Okay? Whatever you do with a bud you can finish by ten o' clock. I'm telling you, he's gay.

Abed spends forty-five minutes in a bar with a guy talking about Farscape, at which point the frustrated guy bluntly asks him if he wants to have gay sex with him, and he immediately refuses. In a twist, Abed admits he knew the guy was hitting on him, he just really wanted to talk about Farscape. Although Abed never told him he wasn't gay...

Community does this a lot. There is a Running Gag that Pierce thinks both Jeff and Britta are gay. One episode had Britta make friends with a lesbian essentially just to brag that she had a lesbian friend and was therefore more tolerant and morally superior than anyone who did not. It turned out that the other girl was straight, thought Britta was a lesbian, and made friends with her for the exact same reason.

On The Game when Tasha had a small spat over the cost of an office space with a Realtor. It is sure to assume that even the audience thought that the flamboyant, well dressed, finger snapping, miniature dog carrying, Realtor was homosexual. But as it turns out:

Averted on an episode of Bones. Booth and Sweets both decide to propose to their respective girlfriends and go to buy their engagement rings together. Unfortunately, the clerk at the jewelry store doesn't misunderstand their relationship.

In another episode, the team investigates the death of a wedding planner. Everyone thinks her executive assistant is gay until near the end of the episode.

Played with in the first series of Blackadder, where Edmund is pretending to be gay to scare off his fianceé. Baldrick tells him to practice by pretending to make a pass at Percy, and leaves. While Baldrick is out Percy makes an annoying comment and Edmund attacks him. Baldrick comes back to find him sitting on top of Percy, and says, "Yes, that's the kind of thing!"

Inverted (and played with) in Series 2, when Blackadder is about to kiss Bob (who is actually a girl called Kate). Baldrick comes in to find Kate on the ground and Blackadder on top of him, and reassures Kate, "Don't worry, Bob. He used to try and kill me too."

Technically Blackadder is mistaken for gay as everyone finds it very strange that he is spending all his time with his manservant, with Queenie remarking, "Do you think he'd spend more time with me if I was a boy?"

In Still Standing there's the oldest son, Brian, where his sexual orientation is often questioned by his own family. He twirls a baton, reads Vogue magazine (because he claims some of the models wear see-through clothing), and even joins the cheer leading squad (but only so he can meet girls).

On NewsRadio, this occurred when Dave and Beth took Matthew to the ER for an injury. The attending nurse took one look at Dave acting concerned and said, "So you must be the boyfriend?"

On Crownies, Tatum spent the first several episodes believing that Richard was gay; even going to so far as to tell her fiancee that he didn't need to be concerned about Richard moving in with them because he was gay. When she discovers the truth, she tells him it would be best if he was "straight at work, gay at home".

Being Human: In the pilot, a realtor assumes George and Mitchell are a couple. George is embarrassed, but Mitchell just runs with it. It's worth noting that in subsequent episodes Mitchell is pretty heavily implied to be bi.

George: How could she assume that we were a couple?

Mitchell: I know! I am way out of your league.

Breaking In: Melanie's boyfriend misinterprets all the signs that Cam is interested in Melanie as signs that he's gay.

Happy Endings: Alex goes to a Halloween party dressed as Marilyn Monroe and hits it off with a cute guy. Turns out he is a gay man who thought she was a transvestite, due to her Tomboyish Name and a seriously hoarse throat.

The 1993 Australian mini-series Secrets opens with some trainee spies in an exercise where they have to go into a pub and get three facts about any person there. One of the trainees ends up thumping a gay man who thinks he's coming on to him — needless to say he's regarded as too volatile for espionage.

On Hello Cheeky, John was sometimes mistaken for gay, as he wasn't married. He wasn't too bothered by it — possibly since Tim and Barry occassionally seemed to be genuinely gay in denial, despite being married.

Tim: Barry...uh, John, is he...(makes limp-wristed gesture)

Barry: ...a swan?

Tim: No, is he...(puts hand on hip, makes limp-wristed gesture)

Barry: A teapot?

Tim: No, I mean...is he...(blows kisses)

Barry: ...Oh, to hell with John, give us a kiss!

A M*A*S*H episode has a scene where Frank Burns is on the phone with another Major from headquarters. After bitching about the slipshod way things are being run at the 4077th, Frank tells the other officer, "You're my kinda fella... Hey, maybe we can get together sometime? I have a feeling that we're very much alike." While we only see/hear Frank's side of the conversation, it's clear from his subsequent, horrified reaction that the guy propositioned him.

In the Haven episode "The Trial of Audrey Parker", Duke answers Audrey's cellphone, and upon finding that it's Nathan, hands the phone to her and says jokingly, "it's your wife". One of their poker buddies says that same-sex marriages are illegal in Maine, but the misunderstanding is cleared up.

Briefly in Farscape. Before a forced marriage, John asks D'Argo to be his best man. D'Argo replies "I'm with Chiana now, John" which just makes John laugh.

In one third season episode of Hawaii Five-0, Steve and Danny have to go to a sorority house. One of the girls immediately assumes that they are the gay parents of one of her sorority sisters. Steve has a bigger concern than being mistaken for gay:

Sorority Girl: "Kelly your dads are here to pick you up."

Kelly: "Those aren't my dads."

Steve: "I'm sorry, you think I look old enough to be her father?"

Danny: "Th...That's the part you bumped﻿ on?"

In The Walking Dead, Axel initially assumes Carol to be a lesbian due to her short hair. When he finds out she isn't, he immediately starts hitting on her.

In Pramface, Mike is mistaken for gay because Beth sets him up on a double date with who he initially thinks is a hot girl, but who is only there waiting for the actual date, a Camp Gay guy. Mike tries to let the guy off easy by saying that he's bisexual and that he is currently leaning straight. Leads to a Crowning Moment of Awesome when people harass them in the street for being gay and he tells them off.

In Degrassi, the female-to-male transgender character Adam is mistaken for a gay boy because of the rainbow flag on his backpack. Then in a later episode, his girlfriend's parents mistake them for lesbians.

Taxi: When Elaine gets dumped, her friends try to help her by introducing her to a nice guy at their regular hangout bar - but it turns out he's interested in Tony, who later pleads with Alex to talk to him and set him straight.

Tony: I just hate the thought of him tormented with sleepless nights!

Alex: He told you that?

Tony: No, I'm just assuming.

In the final season of Misfits, Greg, who actually is gay, falsely comes to believe that Finn is gay and promptly falls in love with him. Slightly more justified than usual, as Greg had stumbled on Finn having anal sex with Alex.

In an episode of Saving Hope, Dr. Joel Goran is mistaken for gay by a gay colleague who also has Asperger's. As Dr. Hamza himself explains, "Sometimes I misread social and emotional cues."

The premise of the MTV series Faking It revolves around two girls at a high school being mistaken for lesbians, and using that mistake to climb their school's social ladder.

In an episode of Powerless, Emily ends up on top of Green Fury while trying to push her out of the way of a missile. Someone snaps an out of context photo of the two women, leading to a newspaper headline speculating that Emily is Green Fury's new girlfriend.

A Moody Christmas. According to the grandmother, the members of the Moody family used to think Dan Moody was gay.

In The Worst Year of My Life, Again, Alex is mistaken for gay by Parker, the school bully, in “Valentine’s Day". Parker seems uncomfortable but is otherwise basically okay with the idea of Alex a) being gay and b) having a crush on him, and doesn’t try to embarrass Alex about it. That is, until he believes that Alex is doing a Grand Romantic Gesture to show the whole school that they are together, at which point he makes sure that everyone knows that no, they aren’t. Until then, Alex had no idea that Parker thought he was gay, and wonders why Parker's acting so weird around him.

The Listener: Toby's friend Oz is having trouble taking to women after a breakup, so Toby tells Oz to practice on him. After a few false starts, Oz pours out his heart about how he doesn't want to be alone. A woman who happens to be nearby in the bar overhears and says to Toby, "That was so incredibly sweet. You're a very lucky guy."

In, of all shows, Zoey 101: Logan tries to bribe his way into the school's secret society and gives a gift to a senior.

Logan: Hm, this is just to let you know... I'm interested.

Senior: Thanks, but I'm seeing someone. (walks away with girlfriend)

Logan: But... Wait, wait,... I didn't mean...

Castle: Natalie Rhodes, the actress who was chosen to play Nikki Heat in the movie based on Castle's novels, tried to seduce Castle, purely in the name of character research. The next day, she asked Beckett if Castle was gay, prompting a spit-take from Beckett.

In Sibel And Max, Max is hanging out in a cafe with his friend Tobias, along with a baby simulator doll he got for his daughter. A lesbian couple in the cafe approaches them and congratulates them on raising a kid together and asks for help getting a baby of their own.

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries: In "Murder and the Maiden", a pair of RAAF oficers are assumed to be homosexual because of all the time they spend together, and that they never show any interest in girls. I reality, one of them is actually a Sweet Polly Oliver.

When Kara tells Winslow Schott that she's Supergirl, he initially assumes that she's trying to tell him that she's gay.

Leslie "Livewire" Willis accuses her of having a "Sapphic vibe", although that's more just a slur than an actual mistake.

When Astra sees a framed photograph of Alex and Kara in Kara's apartment, she tells Alex that "I knew there was more to you and my niece." Alex has to explain that Kara is her adoptive sister.

Frederick Bellacourt, the clueless male heir in Another Period, is being groomed to be the next senator from Rhode Island - until his lack of macho behavior gets him labeled as gay. By Sigmund Freud, no less. Who then catches Frederick and his sister Beatricein bed together:

Dr. Freud: Frederick, look at you. You are cured. The Masculinity training must have done the trick. I officially declare you a non-homosexual. Beatrice: Oh, Frederick, I'm so proud of you. Frederick: You're not concerned at all with the fact that I'm having sex with my sister? Dr. Freud: Seems perfectly natural to me. Carry on.

Nip/Tuck: When Heterosexual Life-Partners Sean McNamara and Christian Troy are selecting chocolate for Christian's upcoming wedding, the chocolatier mistakes them for a gay couple because of how comfortable they are discussing their love lives with each other. They jokingly play along before bursting into laughter.

Tom Brake and his best friend Jimmy Doyle in Night and Day, after they're seen in bed together because Jimmy was scared of a spider and didn't want to sleep on the floor.

The Brit ComNever the Twain was about two Sit Com Arch Nemesis antique dealers whose offspring are in a relationship. In one episode they go to an estate agent to get the kids a house, and the estate agent assumes they want to set up home together. Oliver is outraged: if he were gay, he certainly wouldn't fancy Simon!

One episode of Donny has Donny Deutsch accidentally declaring that he wishes he was brave enough to come out, which everyone else assumes to be him admitting to being in the closet. Hilarity Ensues.

Ilana on Broad City, though complicated by her apparent pansexuality. She becomes angry after discovering Abbi kissed another woman, claiming she was promised Abbi's first same-sex experience. In another episode this exchange occurs when Oliver, a young boy she babysits, paraphrases some of her statements about Abbi:

Oliver: We hung out with Abbi, Ilana's girlfriend, even though they can't be together right now. But they will be someday.

Oliver's mother: Ilana, I had no idea you were gay.

Ilana: We all...

Oliver's mother: Having a gay-bysitter will be wonderful for Oliver's CV to get into middle school.

This apparently happened to Fozzie in The Muppets when he tried to get into online dating.

One episode of Halt and Catch Fire sees Donna dragging Cameron around to find a house of her own. Given how much they bicker, the real estate agent thinks they're a couple, which Donna finds amusing.

Cameron: You're not my type.

The Family: Hank's mother asks if he's gay due to his lack of interest toward women. He's actually a pedophile, though he hates it.

In the late-80's—early 90's, Saturday Night Live featured a character "Lyle, The Effeminate Heterosexual" who was frequently an example of this trope, much to his shock and confusion. To the point where even his own wife and mistress assumed this, despite dialogue that indicated he was an excellent lover.

On Silicon Valley, when Monica confronts Erlich after he outs her as a smoker:

Monica: Thanks for outing me.

Erlich: You're gay? That explains so much.

New Tricks: The boys come to the conclusion that Sandra is a lesbian after trailing her to a mysterious assignation with another woman in "1984". Sandra finds this hilarious and soon sets them right: the woman she was seeing was not her girlfriend, but her shrink.

The Handmaid's Tale: Fred finds out that June had a past with Moira, and arranges for them to meet in Jezebel's when he visits again, thinking they were lesbian lovers. June corrects this, though, and Fred then lets them have some time together anyway (he seems oddly okay with the idea they were lovers in the past, despite echoing the usual anti-gay stance of the regime by calling Moira "degenerate").

Music

A line in "Weird Al" Yankovic's song "Couch Potato" (a spoof of Eminem's "Lose Yourself") has the line, "But I only watched Will & Grace one time, one day. Wish I hadn't, cause TiVo now thinks I'm gay!"

You could call me six times but still I won't pick up the phone You could spend all your money on me but still I'll say no You could write a million letters everyday confessing to me That I am the girl of your dreams But nobody ever asked me I never looked at you that way'Cause I always thought you were gay

But if I were gay I would give you my heart! And if I were gay you'd be my work of art! And if I were gay we would swim in romance... but I'm not gay - so get your hand out of my pants.

Folk singer-songwriter Fred Small made a point of avoiding any references to gender in his lovesongs, so that listeners could interpret them as being about a person of any gender they liked. This, plus a number of overtly pro-gay rights songs, led to a lot of speculation among fans that Small was gay, and he studiously avoided confirming or denying it. He "came out" as straight in 1993, in response to the wave of homophobia over the issue of gays in the military, because he felt it was important that straight allies make themselves known. (His last album does contain one song, "Reverie's End," in which his lost love is definitely a woman because he recalls imagining she was pregnant.)

Stand-Up Comedy

Subverted in a bit featured in John Mulaney's "New in Town," in which Mulaney confesses that while he is a straight man, he probably shouldn't be, and understand assumptions that he's gay.

Happened to Tim Nutt.

I went to Gay Pride last year. I though they said beer. "Swing by the parade, there'll be thousands of beers", that's what I heard. It was fun! I was glad I went. Took me a while to figure out what the hell was going on, though. Got down there, full of enthusiasm, "We're here! We're beer! We're here! We're beer! We're... we're... we're what? All of ya? Wooow! You guys are gonna laugh! I heard the wrong word. What do you say we get together Saint Patrick's Day. I'd more comfortable with that. Or maybe I'll see you at your wedding."

Theater

This is a fear of many in Billy Elliot due to Billy's love of ballet. Michael, Billy's less-flamboyant (in public, anyway) friend...seems to be Mistaken For Straight.

Billy: It says..."Billy Elliot is queer."

Father: ESQUIRE!

Subverted in Angels in America: Joe walks in on Louis crying in the bathroom and in the ensuing conversation Louis assumes Joe is gay. He's completely right, but Joe just hasn't wrapped his mind around that yet.

The musical Rock of Ages includes a character who is mistaken for gay through most of the show, which leads to the best line in the play: "I'm not gay! I'm just German!" The character's named Franz, and he's currently (as of November '09) played by Tom Lenk, who is gay.

In Twice Charmed, Prince Charming says that he loves the maiden at the ball, but the Grand Duke thinks he's referring to him.

Video Games

Deus Ex: Invisible War: If playing as a male Alex, the player can use this to their advantage when trying to break into the Minister of Culture's apartment. If the player convinces him he wants to come over to be a chamber boy, he'll give access to the place, allowing the player to raid it.

2027: When Daniel first leaves the safe house in Paris, a woman sitting outside will begin hitting on him, then inquire about Xander (Daniel's work partner and platonic friend). She'll immediately assume there is something more going on, and will become disappointed.

Happens in Super Robot Wars. For a while, everyone thinks Lieutenant Raidese F. Branstein is gay, because his partner in combat has been spreading the word. He finds out, and punches Ryusei in the face so hard that everyone believes him when he says that he's straight. WITH A PROSTHETIC HAND!

Shin Super Robot Wars: It turns out that what Lu Cain was after was in the university database, which Ryusei plays off as just minor breaking and entering. Once again, Raidiese F. Branstein lambasts Ryusei's foolishness, and when Sanshiro weakly agrees, the dialogue awkwardly comes out that Ryusei has implied that Rai prefers men. No excuse can save Ryusei from a severe verbal bout.

Mick in The World Ends with You apparently has so little confidence that he assumes Neku gives Mick his patronage because he's gay for him.

Makai Kingdom delivers us this particular little gem in a dialogue between Zetta and King Drake the Third:

Laharl: ...What? What's the problem now? Aramis: ...Thank you, Your Highness. Laharl: H, Hmph...! Well, it is part of my job as the Overlord...And don't bother to thank me. If you want to show your gratitude, you can repay me with your body. Etna: Hmmm... I never knew you were like that...

Though Kanji's sexuality itself is kind of a point of contention in the fandom. The fact that his semi-canon pairing is with a tomboy with gender dysphoria doesn't really clarity matters. Word of God is that this was done intentionally.

For a brief moment Kanji makes this mistake about Yukiko when she tells him about her own experiences of having to confront her shadow.

Kanji: So like, that means you came out to everyone too? Yukiko: Th-That's...Um... Kanji: What was it like for Senpai— Yukiko: *Slap*.

Valygar in Baldur's Gate II is mistaken for gay by quite a number of characters. When he denies it, they delight in mocking him, which includes him being called a "fruit" by Cernd.

Raidou gets this a lot in Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon, partly because he spends a lot of time looking for men (specific ones, for detective-work-related reasons) in the neighborhood of Tokyo where the gay prostitutes hang out. Tae also thinks he and Narumi are a couple at one point (granted, so do many of the fans).

In Street Fighter IV, the fan favorite Turkish oil wrestler was originally thought to be SUPER gay by the fandom, until it was revealed that he has a wife and kids.

Briefly in Metal Gear Solid, in the long cutscene when Snake and Otacon first meet. Snake is checking whether or not Otacon is suffering from FOX-DIE. Otacon just assumes Snake is coming onto him. Later in the scene, he interprets Snake's confusion over what he means by how Meryl, despite being dressed as a soldier, is 'still all woman' as Snake being "dense", although this is a possible subversion because what Otacon actually means is that Meryl still has to use the ladies' bathroom.

The Triads mistake Michael and Trevor for a gay couple due to their being seen alone together during various parts of the story. When Franklin shows up, their begin to wonder if he's their other boyfriend or adopted son?

After he starts hanging out with Michael, it's mentioned that some people back in the hood thought that Franklin had been whoring himself out as a rent-boy to rich white guys in Vinewood.

Two characters from Bar Oasis gets this treatment. Vic suffers this treatment twice. First Desree though Vic was gay because he was "interested" in Haruki Murakami's work. Then Vicky accuses him of being gay. Vicky also accuses the Boss for being gay due to the "No dating customers" philosophy. One should note that Vicky runs a gossip rag that pegged them both as gay.

In an optional scene in Chapter 9 of Rakenzarn Tales, Kyuu and Kite happen to run into each other and decide to go get some lunch. As it would happen, some of the Negima girls are at another table in the same cafe, see them together and jump to this conclusion, thinking it was a Rescue Romance deal. Eventually, one of the girls loses her patience and yells at the guys to start making out, much to their confusion.

There's some Real Life subtext to this: The reveal of Min's character design drew complaints online, as some commenters complained about Ubisoft using the old Depraved Homosexual villain cliché in 2014. Thus, Min's remarks about people assuming he's gay just because he wears a pink suit can be seen as a Take That, Critics! to the complainers.

Visual Novels

Little Busters!: At one point when Riki and Kyousuke are having one of their typical Ho Yay-filled scenes - Kyousuke reaches around Riki's collar to take off a piece of lint, leaving their faces very close - Mio comes across them. She, well, interprets the scene as any Yaoi Fangirl would. The conversation doesn't help - when she asks if she's interrupting, Kyousuke says that she somewhat is, and then asks her to join. At first she's very pleased by it all, and even thanks Riki at being able to see something so beautiful, but realises on her own that she misinterpreted the scene. All this time, neither Riki nor Kyousuke ever figures out what she was thinking.

Phoenix: It's not something I can claim to understand... But you and Mr. White are lovers, aren't you! Grossberg: W-w-what! My boy! Phoenix: You sent that painting to him! As a sign! A sign of undying love! Grossberg: M-m-my boy, please! You're letting your fancies run away with you! Where do you get these bizarre ideas? Phoenix: I... I don't understand how you could... Grossberg: That's because I'm not, we're not... Don't be ridiculous! Enough. I'll swallow my pride and tell you all. Phoenix: (I knew it! They are lovers!) Grossberg: N-no! We are NOT lovers!

If you show Larry a picture of Ron DeLite during the segment where he's scolding himself for being a womanizer, he'll assume that you're offering to hook the two of them up and will apologetically tell you that he can't switch orientations.

If you examine the detention center guard in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, he'll eventually notice and wink at you. Curiously, this only happens if you're playing as Apollo; the guard just ignores you if you're playing as Phoenix.

Klavier: I must say I'm used to being inspected by the ladies... But this is the first time I've felt this way with a man.

Jumin from Mystic Messenger is speculated at several points to be gay because of his constant rejections of women.

Web Animation

In the Cartoon Hooligans episode "The Rumors About Spider-Man and Deadpool", when Deadpool inadvertently pulls off Spider-Man's suit leggings, Spider-Gwen happens upon them before running off crying. Immediately afterwards, Captain America and Iron Man also happen upon them, and Iron Man decides to post a picture of the "couple" on Instagram with the tags "#SpideyPool", "#HahGay" and "#Bromance", over their vehement denials.

Bowser's Kingdom follows this trope an odd number of times, because Kamek is constantly calling Hal (and sometimes Jeff) gay:

Episode 2:

Jeff and Hal flashbacked the time they took flying lessons from Kamek. When it failed, Kamek said "What are you, gay?!"

Hal got close to a squished Jeff so he can mourn for him. Jeff got revived and thought Hal was gay. When Hal spoke later in the episode, Jeff said "Shut up, gay face!"

When Jeff was squished again and Hal was mourning for him again, Kamek passed say and said "See! I knew you were gay!"

Episode 6:

Hal was apparently leaving during his jobless period. A Mouser came by and took the sack he was carrying. Hal notices this, and said "He took my sack!". Kamek heard him and said "What are you, gay?!"

When Jeff mentioned to Hal that Donkey Kong kept asking him to eat bananas, Hal said, "And they say I'm the gay one."

Episode 10:

During the scene of Hal explaining why there are no subtitles for the speakable characters from episodes 8 and on, someone was apparently fiddling with the subtitles. The subtitles eventually turned into "I secretly love Kamek." when Hal said "Sometimes I really, really hate this place." Kamek saw this and said "I knew you were gay!"

The Movie:

Not as close to the trope itself, but when Jeff and Hal (disguised as Mario and Luigi, respectively) were making there way inside Peach's palace, the Toad there said hi to them (he mistook them for Mario and Luigi), and blushed when he said hi to Hal (Luigi), and said "Ya know, I had a great time last night." Hal then asked "Are you insinuating that I'm a gay?"

Episode 666:

When Jeff was trying to tell Hal about the zombie invasion, Hal wouldn't listen until Jeff told him that the zombies called Hal gay.

Web Comics

This was an ongoing subplot in Avalon, especially the first year. Early on, Joe tells Ceilidh that her new friend Phoebe is gay (a rumor started by a bitter ex-boyfriend); the amount of time the two spend together leads to a rumor that Ceilidh is also a lesbian, which is compounded when her probing for a definite answer, without being too direct, makes Phoebe think so as well. The "lesbian" subplot is essentially forgotten after the story's halfway mark, until the undrawn ending, in the synopsis of which Phoebe confesses her love for Ceilidh, who, in the next "scene," ambiguously mentions "new relationships".

Subverted in Shortpacked!. Robin believes that the reason that Ethan doesn't show any interest in her is because he's secretly gay. However, when she confronts him about this, it turns out that Ethan actually is gay, but just didn't realize it; unfortunately for Robin, she just helped him work it out.

TwoKinds has Keith and Natani. It gets confusing because Natani considers herself male but is in fact not.

Natani is actually two people sharing two bodies as part of a medical procedure to keep them alive, one male and one female. So whether it's really a 'mistake' or not is something the characters themselves aren't sure of because no one has a word or customs for defining the gender of a binary being, though they're usually offended anyway, on principle.

Last Res0rt cranks it up a notch; sure, Addy and Jigsaw end up caught on camera, but Jigsaw is a vampire and thus was feeding on Addy, not sleeping with her, so Jigsaw ends up having to play along...

This, understandably, is the assumption of The Order of the Stick when they notice what appears to be Elan and a male police officer snogging passionately. The audience knows that they are really Nale and a shapeshifted Sabine.

Tsukiko thinks she is mistaken for bi due to misinterpreting the Monster In The Darkness's comments that she "does both" (actually referring to doing both Arcane and Divine magic).

Tsukiko: I didn't know the Crypt Thing was female!

Earlier, on Elan and Nale's first meeting, Nale's comments on Elan's handsomeness (or rather, his own handsomeness) lead Elan to ask "Are—are you hitting on me? Because whatever you heard about what happened at summer camp—"

Jae-min from Orange Marmalade, due to his He-Man Woman Hater nature, was mistaken for gay by a large group of people and also his best friend (who was worried Jae-min had a crush on him). Si-Hoo's obsessive and highly suggestive nature isn't helping his case and seems pretty determined to "have him".

Tedd gets this at times from the football players that are shown. The Jerk Jock gives him a hard time; the other toes a more Politically Correct line. Neither really help Tedd feel better. At least neither know of his favourite hobby..

This trope is the natural assumption about the extremely effeminate Noah, on the part of readers and characters, resulting in mild surprise/awkwardness when he talks about his girlfriend.

Noah: "You are surprised that I have a girlfriend?"

Elliot: "What? No, not at all!"

Noah: "It is okay if you are."

Elliot: "I ASSUMED NOTHING!"

Noah: "Of course not."

Of course, Noah also freely admits that he can make straight men see rainbows.

After Elliot and Sarah's breakup, and the fact that they're still friends, is mentioned on Elliot's web show, rumors start to circulate to the effect of Elliot being gay. What these people don't know is that the very thing that sparked the breakup, on Elliot's side, was his budding feelings for Susan. Interestingly, Elliot doesn't give a damn when he finds out, merely saying "Eh, let them think what they want".

In the Magic tournament storyline, Tedd assumes his opponent Larry is gay, based on the reasonable grounds that Larry is blatantly hitting on him. Nope, Tedd's just that girly.

Bobwhite. Marlene does a brief internship with Jen, a director who's a big deal in the independent film circuit. They're a great match on the set. Then Jen gives Marlene a big kiss, only to realizes seconds later that Marlene didn't like her that way. (The real irony is that Marlene took this internship in the first place to get away from relationship drama.)

Gunnerkrigg Court's Kat has been mistaken for gay by Paz, thanks to a conversation in which Kat extolled Paz's virtues. For the record, Kat has actually had a boyfriend, even if he did turn into a bird and Paz is getting over the shock of finding that her crush has a crush on ''Chang'e'', of all people. In the next chapter she's wearing a flower in her hair, apparently in an attempt to seem more girly. And then they decide to give a relationship a try

Umlaut House had a bit of a Running Gag where Saundra, ironically one of the straightest characters, was mistaken for a lesbian by strangers. Though there was an Alternate Universe where her counterpart was a lesbian (and attempted to seduce her).

In Luminary Children, Cameron mistakes Rex and Rick for boyfriends. However, after the amount of Ho Yay between them up to that point (which, by the way, is approximately five pages after their introduction), most people would.

Yoon Sung from Welcome To Room 305 gets mistaken for gay when he gets offended over men making homophobic remarks. His sister is lesbian and at the time he felt guilty for being so homophobic towards her in the past.

Noob plays around with that trope due to having a cast including a Yaoi Fangirl and an Effeminate Misogynistic Guy who happens to be a very dedicated Hero-Worshipper. Only the webseries gave a somewhat definitive answer to the situation, with the guy affirming that he's being a Celibate Hero (and claiming to avoid relationships with women), but the very same episode showed that he and the "hero" in question are on a much more friendly basis than they used to be. Later, upon witnessing one of the consequences of that friendship, the girl's reaction was basically "I can't picture this happening unless these two slept together at some point.". The actual situation hence seems closer to The Not-Love Interest.

Its Spin-OffNeogicia has a female protagonist who shares a room and is Heterosexual Life-Partners with an openly lesbian woman that currently does not have a girlfriend and is the most vocal of the two concerning how close they are to each other. The perfect recipe for making people that don't know them personally misread the situation. The protagonist herself has very heterosexual crush... on the emperor of her faction, which gives her plenty of pre-existing competition.

In "Homer's Phobia", Homer ended up overreacting to many small silly things Bart was doing (such as wearing a Hawaiian shirt, or putting on a ladies' wig and singing the Shoop Shoop song) and taking it to mean that contact with an openly gay shopkeeper (played by John Waters) was making Bart "turn gay". After several attempts to make Bart "man up", Homer gives up and says that he's okay with whatever Bart wants to be. When Lisa finally explains it to him, Bart's reaction is "He thinks I'm gay?!"

Played for laughs in another episode, where in an attempt at copying Bart's 'El Barto', Homer (helping build homes for the homeless) paints 'El Homo' on a wall in big letters. Cue a man coming up to him and saying something along the lines of "I wish I had your courage!". Homer then realises what he's painted, and panicking, hastily begins to paint over it.

The trope was often averted with Smithers in earlier seasons, during his conversations with Mr. Burns.

In "Last Exit to Springfield", Homer mistakenly thinks that Mr. Burns' attempts at negotiating with him and offering a bribe are Burns coming onto him. He storms off, saying he doesn't go for these "back-door shenanigans".

Mr. Burns is also subject to this when he's trying to improve his image by going on a Howard Stern knock-off radio show, coupled with a heavy dose of Have a Gay Old Time.

In "Glorious Grandpa", Marge thinks Abe is gay after finding his old wrestling wig in his room, and starts trying to set him up on dates with men.

Butters is quite feminine and gentle, so even his mom thought he was gay and gambled on his sexuality with his dad. Butters' sexual orientation was also the entire point of "Cartman Sucks", where he got sent to a Pray Away the Gay camp for being "bi-curious".

In "Tonsil Trouble", Cartman gets AIDS from a botched blood transfusion and then passes it on to Kyle intentionally. Throughout the episode, people repeatedly assume that Cartman and Kyle are gay lovers (see the page quote) when they find out that they both have AIDS. Earlier, the doctor who diagnoses Kyle asks him repeatedly if he's absolutely sure he hasn't been having unprotected anal sex.

Happens again in Cartman Finds Love between Cartman and Kyle. To keep Kyle from going out with the new girl for a few naïvely racist reasons, Cartman spreads the rumor that he and Kyle are (or at least were) dating. Funny enough, everyone seems to believe it pretty easily.

In "Tweek x Craig", the entire town believes the two are a couple after the new Asian students make Yaoi art featuring them. Tweek and Craig fail to get people to stop shipping them together and they decide to go along with it after seeing how happy their "relationship" makes everybody.

The Critic: Jay Sherman's boss thinks he's gay, and that Jay has a huge man-crush on him, despite Jay's repeated insistence that he's not gay. Then again, considering Jay's ex-wife compared his sex appeal to that of a dead mackerel, it probably wouldn't be that good anyway.

Jay: You don't think I'm gay, do you? Doris: No man in his right mind would sleep with you. Jay:Thank you!

Bill Dauterive spends an episode purposely being mistaken for gay much like one of the examples above, as the trendy salon he is hired by only employs women and gay men, thinking straight men simply don't have what it takes to be good hairstylists. He blows his cover when an extremely attractive female customer flirts heavily with him and says it's a shame he's gay. Of course, when he "comes out" to her (loud enough for the whole salon to hear), she immediately becomes disgusted with him (and herself, for letting a straight man style her hair).

Dale thinks that John Redcorn is gay. The same John Redcorn that his wife has been sleeping with behind his back for over 10 years, and is very obviously the real father of his son. In fact, this actually started when Redcorn was about to confess to the affair out of guilt but was stopped from doing so by Hank.

Dale:[to Hank] I was gettin' a weird vibe in there. You think he's gay?

And Peggy's hairdresser from "Good Bye Normal Jeans": everything about him from the way he acted and dressed just screamed Camp Gay, but as it turns out, to Peggy's and the viewers' surprise, he has a wife and child.

In the episode "My Own Private Rodeo", Hank tries to help Dale mend fences with his estranged father Bug, who is, in fact, a gay rodeo rider; when Hank shows up at the Rodeo, Bug jumps to conclusions:

Hank spent much of the early seasons worried about Bobby possibly being gay especially when he took up modeling, this fear was put to rest in "Naked Ambition" when Kahn informs him that he caught Bobby and Connie half naked together, after Kahn leaves Hank laughs and breathes a sigh of relief. Later in the episode after Khan has erected a giant fence between their houses, Hank lets Bobby borrow a ladder so he and Connie can kiss.

In the "I'm With Cupid" episode there's a Valentine tradition of girls giving carnations to the boys they like. Bobby gets two, so he lends them to his best friend Joseph, since it'll make the latter seem more desirable to a crush he has. Course, when Joseph moves to return them, one of their classmates sees the act and assumes Joseph is confessing his attraction to Bobby. On the plus side, said classmate simply says the act took courage.

Happens quite a few times in The Venture Bros. There's the doctor mistaking Brock for Rusty's partner, the hicks calling Dr. Orpheus gay in the diner, Rusty accusing Dr. Orpheus of trying to seduce him...

Pete White gets this the most, because of his eccentric style, his lucky pink shirt, and because he rooms with Billy Whelan. In Every Which Way But Zeus, he's called out by, of all people, Shoreleave. When Billy's mother is introduced, Billy even has to confess to Pete that he told her they were gay—it was just easier than trying to explain two straight men living together.

Jonesy and Wyatt were mistaken for a gay couple by two girls they were trying to hit on. Jonesy was not amused.

Nikki makes a new friend in one episode and there is strong evidence that the girl has a crush on Nikki. Nikki tries to ask her if she is gay, awkwardly stumbling over her words in an effort to avoid offending her. The girl thinks Nikki is trying to ask her out, and declines because she already has a girlfriend.

Ace and Gary, the members of The Ambiguously Gay Duo fight villains who are believe that both members of the duo are gay and scheme to out them as such. According to Word of God, these villains are only half right but its unknown which member of the duo is the mistaken one.

Peter: Derek, how are you getting to the picnic? Derek: I don't know. I don't have a ride. Peter: Hey, John, you got a two-seater, don't you? Peter: Hey, Derek, maybe you go with John? Derek: For the last time, I'm not gay! John: Thanks anyway, Peter. Peter: We'll get him.

In an episode, Terry has to fly under the gaydar to keep his bigoted father from finding out he's gay; in the process of pretending, he claims Francine is his girlfriend and Greg (his actual partner) and Stan are "the homos from across the street". Terry's dad goes right along with this despite Stan's absolute lack of performance (he sees Stan wolf-whistle an attractive woman and snarks "Yeah, whistle a showtune, you fairy!").

There was also that time Stan created his own theatrical one-man show about Abraham Lincoln and his fictional bodyguard played by Stan. It's a hit because of all the gay subtext Stan doesn't seem to notice.

Kevin and Mack were briefly mistaken for a couple while attending a bridal expo together. They were actually there to see their respective girlfriends in a fashion show.

Played for Drama in "Is It Fall Yet?," when Jane befriends Alison. Alison gets Jane drunk (note that Jane is too young to drink) and comes on to her, claiming that she never hits on straight chicks. Jane briefly begins to question her own sexuality, but eventually realizes that Alison was trying to do just that to help seduce her.

Briefly in "Lane Miserables" when Jake answers the front door assuming it's one of Quinn's dates and sees a woman at the door.

In the episode "My Three Suns" Bender is seen watching a cooking show that he is a closeted fan of. He tries to hide this from others, most likely out of fear that it would compromise his masculinity and because he would be viewed by others as a "pansy". When Fry and Leela fond out about Bender's love for cooking, Fry also admits that he loves cooking and Bender hypocritically calls Fry a pansy for this. The word pansy is another word to describe someone who is sissy or gay and Bender used that word on Fry.

This happens to Kif Kroker in "Amazon Women In The Mood" when he, Bender, Fry, and Zapp Brannigan are sentenced by the Femputer to death by "snu-snu". While Fry and Zapp switch moods ranging from glee to terror, Kif just shows absolute terror and when Zapp sees the terrified looks on Kif's face, Zapp says "what are you gay?" to Kif when its clear that Kif is in love for Amy but has been having trouble confessing his feelings for her throughout the episode due to anxiety.

Time Squad: This happens to Buck Tuddrussel at least twice in the series. He has had a lot of blatant subtext with Camp Gay robot Larry 3000. The subtext is so thick that other characters think that theres something going on between them. Tudrussel and Larry have been mistaken for ancouple engaged to be married by Albert Einstein, who refers to Larry as "the missus" and then Dr. Sigmund Freud approached Tuddrussel and Larry's "relationship" like he would towards a married couple. Tuddrussel has shown attraction towards multiple women in the show though.

Revenge of the Island has an odd variant: Lightning constantly mistakes Jo for a guy. Things get very awkward when, in a thinking-they're-about-to-die situation, she confesses that she's never kissed a guy.

Lightning: Hey man, it's cool. Lightning doesn't judge.

Geoff and Brody are such close Heterosexual Life-Partners during The Ridonculous Race that some of the other contestant think they're a couple.

A Parental Bonus joke in The Looney Tunes Show episode, "Jailbird and Jailbunny"; Bugs and Daffy escape from jail and Bugs wants to turn himself in, but the police officer he talks to doesn't recognize him since Daffy dyed his fur to disguise him. Bugs asks the cop if he's not an escaped convict, why is he chained to Daffy? The cop's response: "Your personal lives are your business."

Jake: Don't get me wrong, Adam; I know I'm quite a looker, and I like you and all... (comically deeper voice) but not that way.

On The Cleveland Show, Junior changes his style and starts going by "C.J." in an attempt to be cooler. He winds up befriending a girl from another school and asking her out to her prom...only for it to come out that she's a lesbian, and thinks he's one too. Hilarity Ensues.

In Mike Tyson Mysteries, Mike thinks Yung is a lesbian when he sees her watching the WNBA. It doesn't help her case when Marquess also enjoys watching the WNBA.

Mike: Oh, my God! Are you a lesbian? Yung: No, I'm not a lesbian. Mike: You're a lesbian and you're afraid to come out to me. (Mike looks at the empty beer cans, cigarette butts, prescription medications and bottles, and a bong around the living room)Mike: Is that why you drinkin' and druggin', because you have so much shame? Yung: This is all Pigeon's, not me. Mike: Yung, I will love you no matter who you choose to lay with.

Bob's Burgers has an episode where Bob's Thanksgiving turkey keeps mysterious being sabotaged by someone in the family, forcing him to keep going back to the butcher to buy a new one. This leads the butcher to believe that Bob keeps coming back to flirt with him, at first offering to set him up with a friend but he eventually gets worn down by Bob and offers to go on a date or sleep with him. Bob actually briefly considers his proposition before awkwardly leaving with his turkey.

Butcher: Oh my God, we're doing this! Bob: No, we're not. Butcher: Hey, what do you wanna do? You wanna go to the beach? Bob: No. Maybe. Wait, I'm straight. I mean, I'm mostly straight. You should call Tony. Butcher: Let's grab a coffee. No, let's just have sex! Oh God, this feels so great! Bob: I should just-, sorry I gotta go cook this. Also, I'm married. But if I wasn't... Who am I kidding, you're out of my league! It would never work. Butcher: What are you talking about?! Bob: I really gotta go! Butcher: I'm gonna see you tomorrow! Bob: Probably not. ...I'll call you!

Gravity Falls: Men in Black agents, Powers and Trigger in one episode disguise themselves as a married couple during their investigation of the supernatural incidents occurring at Gravity Falls. They eventually drop the act but they bickered Like an Old Married Couple when they got into an argument on where Trigger left Powers' phone. Tambry walks in on the agents and then immediately walks out while telling them that she is "not even gonna ask" after seeing the agents bickers in a closet combined with the fact that Trigger was wearing a dress at the time.

The Fred's Head episode "Fred TV" revolves around a reality show editing Fred's life to make it sound like he's hiding the fact he's gay. They promise to fix their mistake in the next episode...only to not only make the implications worse, but imply his parents are homophobic and have thrown him out on the streets.

Real Life

Voice actors Jeff Nimoy and Quinton Flynn unknowingly walked right into a yaoi movie together, which led to some speculations. However, they turned the accusations to their advantage and made a hilarious song out of it.

In the seventies a rumor started as a joke caught hold, that Jim Nabors and Rock Hudson were going to get married. Both were gay, but there is no evidence that the two were ever in a romantic relationship.

Gina Gershon played a bisexual character in Showgirls and a lesbian in Bound, and was apparently so convincing in her portrayals that she often gets hit on by women. She laughed it off in an interview, stating, "I kinda wish I could be a lesbian. So many girls come up to me all the time, I keep thinking, 'God, I should be a lesbian.' But unfortunately, I'm straight."

In 2005, New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza held a press conference to declare his heterosexuality.

KT Tunstall was mistaken for gay after her Eye To The Telescope album; many of the songs are ambiguous in this regard, and the cover art depicts her wearing a pair of rainbow suspenders.note "suspenders" here is American English for "braces", not "lingerie". Here she's actually in a man's shirt with braces, not the sort of suspenders a woman wears below the waist. Despite her statements to the contrary, many people think she's just in the closet.

This perception of KT wasn't helped when she posed for a photoset with fellow singer Joss Stone. Somehow Joss appeared ultra-feminine; Tunstall somewhat butch and mannish in mens'-style clothing. Possibly completely accidentally, the result looked like a butch-femme partnership and fuelled rumours that both heterosexual singers were in a relationship - with each other.

Around the time that Melanie C, formerly of the Spice Girls, put her first solo album out, her stylists started putting her in some very soft-butch clothing for record art and press photoshoots, and even threw in some rather Les Yay-loaded poses with female models. This naturally led to an awful lot of prurient tabloid speculation, which made a definite contribution to her unhappy mental state at the time.

Former astronaut Michael Collins references this trope in his memoir Carrying The Fire when he describes how NASA started having simultaneous sleep periods for astronauts after Gemini 5; he says they had to be careful about the terminology because someone might misunderstand if they heard that a crew was "sleeping together."

An extreme version has happened with talk show host Wendy Williams, who has actually been mistaken for a crossdressing man because of her height, relatively manly features, and over the top wigs and make up. However, despite all this she is in fact not a man and in fact has a child and has had many miscarriages.

Musician Billy Squier's 1984 video for "Rock Me Tonite", directed by Kenny Ortega, featured him waking up from a bed with satiny pastel sheets and dancing effeminately around the room in a pink tank top (not quite the concept he had told Ortega he wanted to do). While the song was his most successful single ever, it was also his last hit single. Everyone thought he was gay, he could no longer sell out concerts, and the video is widely considered one of the worst ever since it ruined his career.

Because of his overall looks and flamboyant personality, singer Mika was thought to be so. He later put the rumors to rest stating he's not straight, but then again he's not gay nor bisexual either (His declarations seem to place him somewhere among the lines of either polysexual or pansexual with the typical "no labels" argument). Later on, in August 2012, he came out as gay.

Seattle actor Jeremy Adams, who played a Camp Gay character in Mark Siano's cabaret show Modern Luv, is heterosexual in the real world.

Bert and Ernie. On the one hand, Word of God may never have been ignored so much. On the other hand, all those Talking in Bed sketches only hurt their case. The Sesame Workshop's official line has for years been "They are not gay, they are not straight, they are puppets. They don't exist below the waist."

Being an unmarried politician over the age of thirty usually leads to automatic gay rumors. US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is a commonly cited example, one of the few bachelors to pursue the presidency, and has frequently denied being gay. A friend and fellow Air Force officer was interviewed about this and stated Graham is "Nothing but heterosexual. There are stories that I cannot share to prove it but he is."

Jonathan Davis, lead singer of the rock band Korn had this problem early in the band's career, because of his flamboyant way of dressing during concerts, including wearing dresses. The band even had fun with this belief by making a troll conspiracy video. However, Johnathan is married with children, and he had a reputation with female groupies beforehand. Clearly, this has been a problem for him going as far back as highschool, if the song "Fagat" is any indication. "I'm just a pretty boy. I'm not supposed to fuck a girl."

Glenn Erickson, author of the DVD Savant film column, once shared an anecdote that while attending UCLA, he started receiving mail praising his stand on gay rights. Turns out another Glenn Erickson, a member of the Gay Student Union, had written such an article for The Daily Bruin. Erickson considered writing a clarification, but decided he'd rather be mistaken for gay than mistaken for a homophobe.

"Weird Al" Yankovic got hit with this in the late 90's. He recounted that some of his mother's friends told her "Well, he's almost forty, and he's not married, and he lives in Hollywood. You know what that means."

During the 2015 Academy Awards, Graham Moore, the winner of Best Adapted Screenplay for The Imitation Game, stated in his speech, "When I was sixteen years old, I tried to kill myself because I felt weird and I felt different and I felt like I did not belong." Given the film he'd written was about a closeted gay man who was driven to suicide by his orientation, many news outlets interpreted it as him coming out as gay. He later clarified that he is straight.

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